The Doctor's Wife AU
by 10Blue10
Summary: In the original timeline, the Doctor met his TARDIS properly for the first time on House...in this timeline of what could have been, he still meets Sexy, as well as three old friends - and he's determined not to lose them again.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

A/N: I got bitten by the inspiration bug and decided to write this three shot AU of the Doctor's Wife. Expect Chapters Two and Three…when I manage to finish Chapter Two. They'll be varying lengths, but this is the longest.

/

The Doctor walked through the twisting corridors, reaching out for the minds of the Time Lord's he could sense hovering at the edge of his telepathic awareness. For some reason it felt like they were warning him away, to run, but why would he run away from them?

Eventually he came across a small blue cupboard. "Well they can't all be in here" he murmured, opening the doors. Inside sat a dozen or so Time Lord distress signal boxes, all crying out for help that never came. The Doctor's jaw tensed; in a fit of sudden rage, he began tearing the boxes out of the cupboard, knocking them to the ground. They switched off, but didn't break...and then the Doctor realised that he could still sense Time Lords.

He stared at the empty cupboard, and noticed a tear in the back. It was hard to spot, being just as dark on the other side…he poked it and his finger went right through. The Doctor stepped back, his hope restored, and sonicked the whole wall. With a grinding sound, it swung inwards, and he choked on the terrible smell that emanated from the chamber beyond.

"Stay back!" a hoarse voice cried from within, "I'm armed!" The Doctor's eyes adjusted to the dim light; to his horror, he saw a blood-stained, dusty cell, with a Time Lord and two Time Ladies cowering at the back. A black haired and grey eyed Time Lord, the Corsair, was holding a metal rod at him, his right arm a bandaged stump. He recognised the other two as well; Romana and Chancellor Flavia.

They recognised him, the Corsair lowering the rod. "Doctor?" Romana breathed, staring at him disbelievingly. She'd regenerated, into a brunette with green eyes, and Flavia was black haired and brown eyed. "I'm sorry" the Doctor got out, "I'm so sorry...come on, all of you, come with me!" he urged, holding out his hand.

The three of them hurried out of the cell, the Doctor closing the door behind them. Auntie and Uncle approached, and all of them tensed up. "I was just admiring your Time Lord distress signal collection. That's what the Ood translator picked up, cries for help from the _long dead. _Nearly thought I had no friends here…how many Time Lords have you lured here the way you lured us, and what happened to them all?" he demanded.

Auntie and Uncle looked nervous; no, terrified. Good. "House, House is kind, and he is wise..." Auntie began. "House repairs you when you break! Yes, I know!" the Doctor shouted, making them step back. "But how does he mend you?" He scanned Uncle. "You have the eyes of a twenty year old" he stated. Uncle smirked. "Thank you".

"I mean it, literally. Your eyes are thirty years younger than you are, your ears don't match, your right arm is two inches longer than your left, and how's your dancing? Cos you've got two left feet. Patchwork people" the Doctor spat, "you've been repaired and patched up so often I doubt there's anything left of what used to be you".

He caught Romana's eye and said in a gentler tone, "I had an umbrella like them once". He was pleased to see her mouth twitch into a brief smile. The Doctor turned back to Auntie and grabbed her arm...or rather, the Corsair's missing arm. "Oh, it's been a great arm for me this. Yes, um, I got his arm, and Uncle got one of the kidneys".

The Doctor looked at the Corsair, who nodded sadly, and shoved Auntie away from him. "You trapped my friends...and hurt them...that's enough to make anyone angry, God knows what it will do to me. Basically...run!" he yelled, making them jump. Auntie fled, and Uncle turned at the archway, saying "Poor old Time Lords. Too late...House is too clever". Then he too left.

Just then, the sound of a ringing phone echoed through the chamber. The Doctor pulled his mobile out and put it on speaker. "Hey! No sonic screwdriver, also the door seems to have locked behind us. Rory thinks there's a perfectly innocent explanation, but I think you tricked us" Amy accused him, and he winced.

"Time Lord stuff…needed you out of the way" he said. "What, we're not good enough for your smart new friends?" Amy scoffed, but suddenly something occurred to the Doctor. "The little boxes and smelly room will make you angry...how could she know?" he wondered aloud. "Doctor, what are you talking about?" asked Amy.

"Stay put, stay exactly where you are" he ordered, and heard Amy say "We don't have much-" before he switched the phone off. "Come on!" he called to the others as he ran through the corridor. "Doctor, who could know?" asked Romana. The Doctor ignored her, and kept searching the corridors until he found the bitey woman from before sitting in a cage.

He strode over and demanded, "How did you know about the boxes? And the room? You said they'd make me angry, how did you know?" The woman opened her eyes and smiled at him. "Ah, it's my thief. And your friends. You found them, that's good". The Doctor glared at her. "Who are you?" he asked.

"She snuck us food sometimes" muttered Flavia, speaking for the first time. "No, the one before did", the woman looked sad for a moment; "Do you really not know me? Just because they put me in here?" she asked the Doctor. "They said you were dangerous" he replied, and she rolled her eyes.

"They also said House was nice. Not the cage, stupid. In _here_", she put a hand on either side of her face, "they put me, in here. I'm the...oh, what do you call me? We travel. I go-", and then she made the sound of a dematerialising TARDIS. The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "The TARDIS?" he asked incredulously. "Time and Relative Dimensions In Space - yes, that's it. Names are funny...it's me. I'm the TARDIS" she smiled.

The Doctor scoffed. "No, you're not, you're a bitey mad lady! The TARDIS is...up and down-y stuff in a big blue box" he said dismissively. '_Up and down-y stuff?_' Romana mouthed at the Corsair, who could only shrug. "Yes, that's me" the mad woman agreed, "a Type 40 TARDIS. I was already a museum piece when you were young, and the first time you touched my console, you said"-

"- I said you were the most beautiful thing I'd ever known" the Doctor finished. He'd almost forgotten about that… "And then you stole me, and I stole you" she continued.

"I borrowed you"

"Borrowing implies the eventual intention to return the thing that was taken...what makes you think I would ever give you back?" she asked. The Doctor turned back to face her. "You're the TARDIS?" he asked dubiously, "my TARDIS?"

"My Doctor. Oh! We have now reached the point in the conversation where you open the lock" she said, standing up and stepping back. The Doctor blinked and sonicked the cage, allowing the bitey mad woman who was apparently his TARDIS to step out. She stared at him curiously and he swallowed. "Are all people like this?" she asked suddenly.

"Like what?" asked the Corsair, and the Doctor jumped; he'd almost forgotten the others were there, except he couldn't forget. "So much bigger on the inside" answered the TARDIS lady. "I'm...oh, what is that word?" she asked in frustration, "it's so...big! So complicated...it's so sad".

The four Time Lords were extremely confused, which was saying something. "Why pull the living soul from a TARDIS and pop it in a tiny human head? What does it want you for?" the Doctor wondered aloud. "It doesn't want me. House eats TARDISes" the TARDIS lady shrugged. "House what? What do you mean?" he asked, wishing she'd just give him a straight answer.

"I don't know, something I heard him say" she replied, pointing at the Corsair. The Corsair looked bewildered. "When?" he asked, and she replied, "in the future", as though it were obvious. "Um...House eats TARDISes" the Corsair tried. "See, there you go" the TARDIS lady nodded. The Doctor tried to speak but she pressed a finger to his lips. "What are fish fingers?" she asked randomly.

"When does he say that?" the Doctor asked in confusion. "Not him, you, any minute" she replied, and he pushed her hand away. "Of course!" he exclaimed, figuring it out, "House feeds on rift energy and TARDISes are bursting with it - and not raw, lovely and cooked, processed food…mmm, fish fingers" he smiled at the thought of his favourite snack.

"Do fish have fingers?" asked the TARDIS lady. The Doctor shook his head, "But, you can't _eat _a TARDIS, it would destroy you! Unless, unless…"

"Unless you deleted the TARDIS matrix first" Romana nodded. The Doctor chuckled mirthlessly. "So it deleted you" he said to the TARDIS lady, who turned to Flavia, for some reason and said "But House can't just delete a TARDIS' consciousness, that would blow a hole in the universe", then to the Corsair, "so it pulls out the Matrix, sticks it in a living receptacle", and then to Romana, "and then it feeds on the remaining artron energy".

She turned to the Doctor last of all and beamed. "They were about to say all that. I don't suppose they have to now" she smiled. The Doctor nearly smiled back when he realised something else. "I sent Amy and Rory in there, they'll be eaten. Amy!" he called them on the mobile, running off, "Amy! Rory! Get the hell out of there!"

Romana stared at the TARDIS lady. "Are you really his TARDIS?" she asked her, and she nodded. "Yes; you drilled a hole in my console, don't do that again, please. We should probably follow him, shouldn't we?" she suggested, brushing past them all and making her way down the corridor.

They found Auntie and Uncle in one room and the Corsair raised his metal rod to defend them; but then the TARDIS lady sat down and said they should just wait until the Doctor came back in five minutes. The Time Lords and the patchwork people eyed each other warily.

Sure enough, five minutes later the Doctor walked back in, looking agitated. "It's gone!" he told them, ignoring Auntie and Uncle. "It's been eaten?" asked Flavia. "No, it left. Not eaten, hi-jacked, but why?" he asked. He didn't know and he _hated _not knowing. "It's time for us both to go, an' keep together" Auntie said all of a sudden.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Go? What do you mean 'go'? Where are you going?" the Doctor demanded. They couldn't leave until he'd gotten a chance to punish them. "Well, we're dying, my love. It's time for Auntie and Uncle to pop off" she answered. Uncle shrugged. "I'm against it" he mumbled.

Auntie sat down next to Uncle and gestured to the Doctor. "It's your fault, isn't it, sweets? Cos you told House it was the last TARDIS". The other three Time Lords looked at the Doctor in alarm. "House can't feed on them if there's none more coming, can he?"

"So now he's off to your universe to find more TARDISes" explained Uncle. "It won't" the Doctor bit out. "Oh, it'll think of something" Auntie assured him, before keeling over with a groan. "Actually, I feel fine" said Uncle, standing up...and promptly dropping dead. _Good riddance to bad rubbish _the Doctor thought coldly.

"Doctor? What did he mean, last"- Romana began, but the TARDIS lady interrupted. "We need to go to where I landed Doctor, quickly" she announced. "_Why_?" he asked, exasperated. "Because we are there in three minutes. We need to go...now!" she cried, running off, only to stop with a cry of pain. "Ow!"

They all stared at her in concern. "Roughly how long do how long do these bodies last?" she asked the Doctor, who scanned her. "You're dying" he said, reading the results. The TARDIS lady rolled her eyes. "Yes, of course I'm dying", she snatched the sonic off him. "I don't belong in a flesh body. I could blow the casing in no time. No, stop it, don't get emotional. That's what the orangey girl says. You're the Doctor. Focus" she ordered, holding out the sonic.

"On what? How? I'm a madman with a box, without the box, stuck down the plughole of the universe on a stupid old junkyard!" he shouted, and then realised, "Oh".

"Oh what?"

Suddenly the Corsair gasped as the same thought occurred to him. "You mean" - the Doctor spun round and pointed at him. "Yes!" he cheered. "Yes what?" asked Flavia. "It's not a junkyard, don't you see? It's not a junkyard!" the Doctor grinned excitedly. "What is it, then?" asked the TARDIS lady.

The Doctor ran over to her. "It's a TARDIS junkyard! Come on...oh, sorry, do you have a name?" he asked the TARDIS lady, who looked over her shoulder at Romana. "Seven hundred years, finally he asks" she said to the Time Lady in a long suffering tone. "So what do I call you?" the Doctor prompted her.

"I think you call me...Sexy" she smirked. The Doctor went red. "Only when we're _alone_" he whispered, embarrassed. She tilted her head and replied, "What's your point?" The Doctor tried several times to speak, and finally got out, "Oh never mind! Come on, Sexy". He grabbed her hand and dragged her through the corridors, leaving the others to follow them.

They climbed up on top of a big hill. "Valley of the half-eaten TARDISes. Are you guys thinking what I'm thinking?" he asked. "I'm thinking that all of my sisters are dead. That they were devoured, and that we are looking at their corpses" the TARDIS lady said sadly. The Doctor glanced at her. "Ah, no, sorry. That's not what I was thinking" he admitted.

"No, you were thinking you could build a working TARDIS console out of broken remnants of a hundred different models. And you don't care that it's impossible" she finished, looking up at him. "It's not impossible as long as we're alive. Rory and Amy need me. So yeah, we're gonna build a TARDIS" he grinned, heading off into the valley.

/

Before the Time War began, Flavia had never left Gallifrey, and she was perfectly content with that. Then she'd become a renegade, ended up on a homicidal asteroid with a penchant for chopping bits off people and sticking them on others, been rescued by another renegade, and was currently helping said renegade in a mad scheme to cobble together a TARDIS console.

"I can't believe the Doctor does this all the time" she said to Romana as they searched for wires that weren't too frayed. "I can" her fellow Time Lady replied. They looked up and watched the Doctor bickering with the TARDIS lady like a married couple, going on about not being reliable and talking or some other nonsense.

The Doctor switched from cross to excited to concerned faster than a set of traffic lights. "This incarnation is very strange, isn't it?" Flavia said thoughtfully. Romana shrugged. "I've seen worse" she replied, before smiling. "Here we are!" she said triumphantly, holding up the cord she'd been teasing out of a mess of other wires. They got up and went over to the Doctor.

Flying the makeshift TARDIS was surprisingly less terrifying than it should have been; probably because anything beat being imprisoned on House. Of course Flavia wasn't about to start whooping and cheering like the others, and she was very glad when they landed inside the Doctor's TARDIS and stopped being thrown about. The Doctor ran to embrace a red haired human, and the TARDIS lady suddenly wobbled. The Corsair helped her sit down.

"Not good. Not good at all...how do you walk around in these things?" she asked plaintively. The Doctor came over and crouched down, giving her hand a squeeze. "We're not quite there yet...just hold on" he told her. His human friends were staring at Flavia, Romana, the Corsair and the TARDIS lady with wide eyes.

"Doctor, are they…?" the red haired girl said curiously. "Yes! Time Lords!" he grinned. "Amy, Rory, this is Romana, Flavia, the Corsair and...well, she's my TARDIS. Except she's a woman. She's a woman and she's my TARDIS" the Doctor rambled. "She's the TARDIS?" asked Amy, eyes wide. "And she's a woman! She's a woman and she's the TARDIS" he repeated, grinning stupidly.

Amy looked at Romana. "Did he wish _really _hard?" she asked with a smirk, and the Doctor blushed. "Shut up, it's not like that" he protested. The TARDIS lady got to her feet. "Hello, I'm...Sexy" she greeted. The Doctor glared at his companions. "Still shut up" he warned them.

"_The environment has been breached. Nephew, kill them all_" House's voice echoed through the TARDIS. Nothing happened. "Where's Nephew?" wondered the other human, Rory presumably. "He was standing right where you materialised" Amy told them, and Flavia grimaced. "Ah; well, he must have been redistributed" the Doctor answered.

Amy raised an eyebrow. "Meaning what?" asked Rory. "You're breathing him" explained the Corsair, and the humans gagged. "Another Ood I failed to save" the Doctor sighed. "_Doctor, I did not expect you" _House commented in a chilling tone. "Well, that's me all over isn't it? Lovely old unexpected me" the Doctor replied nonchalantly.

"_The big question is, now that you're here, how to dispose of you? I could play with gravity" _House suggested, increasing the gravitational pull and dragging them to the floor. They struggled against the pull until House released them, toying with them. The TARDIS lady collapsed and the Corsair caught her. Rory moved over and began taking her pulse. _"Or I could evacuate the air from this room and watch you choke_".

They all gasped for breath as the air rushed out of their lungs and the room. "You _really _don't wanna do that!" the Doctor managed to get out. The air returned, and House asked _"Why shouldn't I just kill you now?" _

"Because then I won't be able to help you" replied the Doctor, much to his fellow Time Lord's alarm. "Listen to your engines. Just listen to them. You don't have the thrust and you know it. I'm your only hope for getting out of your little bubble, through the rift, and into my universe. And mine's the one with the food in! You just have to promise not to kill us. That's all, just promise".

Romana really hoped this was all part of the Doctor's plan. "You can't be serious" said Amy, ironically saying what Romana was thinking. "I'm very serious. I'm sure it's an entity of it's word" the Doctor lied. The Corsair called, "Doctor! Your...TARDIS, her temperature is fluctuating, she's asking for water". The Doctor came over and knelt besides the dying woman, taking her hand.

"Hey, hang in there, old girl" he smiled, stroking her cheek. "Not long now. It'll be over soon" he murmured. "Always liked it when you called me, old girl" the TARDIS lady smiled at him. "_You want me to give my word? Easy - I promise_" said House. The Doctor looked up at the ceiling. "Fine. OK. I trust you. Just delete, ooh, 30% of the TARDIS rooms, you'll free up thrust enough to make it through. Activate sub-routine Sigma-9" he instructed.

"_Why would you tell me this?" _House asked curiously. The Doctor stood up. "Because we want to get back to our universe as badly as you do. And I'm nice" he replied. "_Yes_" House agreed, "_I can delete rooms, and I can also rid myself of vermin, if I delete this room first. Thank you Doctor, very helpful. Goodbye, Time Lords. Goodbye, little humans. Goodbye, Idris" _House mocked them.

There was a white flash, and they found themselves in a different control room. "Yes. I mean you could do that, but it just won't work. Hardwired fail-safe. Living things from rooms that are deleted are automatically deposited in the main control room. But thanks for the lift!" the Doctor said smugly. Romana smiled to herself...she should have known he wouldn't just let House win.

"_We are in your Universe now, Doctor. Why should it matter to me in which room you die? I can kill you just as easily here as anywhere. Fear me. I've killed hundreds of Time Lords_" House threatened. The smug expression on the Doctor's face was replaced by a cold one. "Fear _me. _I've killed all of them" he replied.

Flavia stared at the Doctor, confused and worried. No more TARDISes was one thing, but what did he mean, he'd killed all the Time Lords? "Yeah, you're right. You've completely won" the Doctor said suddenly, doing another complete one-eighty. "Oh, you can kill us in oodles of really inventive ways, but before you do kill us allow me and my friends to congratulate you on being an absolutely worthy opponent".

He started to clap, before grabbing Amy and pulling her up to stand beside him. They both applauded, Amy looking confused. "Congratulations!" she cried, before looking over her shoulder at the Time Ladies and shrugging helplessly. "Yep, you've defeated us, me and my lovely friends here; and last, but _definitely_ not least the TARDIS matrix herself, a living consciousness you _ripped_ out of this very control room and locked up into a human body and look at her!"

It was clear the woman was on the point of death. "Doctor, she's stopped breathing" Rory said sadly. Amy came over to them. "_Enough! That is enough_" House snapped impatiently. "No. It's never enough. You forced the TARDIS into a body so she'd burn out safely a very long way away from this control room. A flesh body can't hold the TARDIS Matrix and live. Look at her body, House" the Doctor ordered.

"_And you think I should mourn her?_" asked House. "No. I think you should be very, _very _careful what you let back into this control room" answered the Doctor, as golden energy flowed from the TARDIS lady's mouth and around the room. "You took her from her home. But now she's back in the box again, and she's free!" he cheered.

The energy swirled around them, diving into the console. House groaned in pain. _"No! Doctor, stop this! OW! Stop this now!_"

"Oh, look at my girl, look at her go! Bigger on the inside! You see, House?"

"_Make it stop!_"

"That's your problem. Size of a planet, but inside you're just so small!"

"_Make it stop!_"

The Doctor turned to his fellow Time Lords. "You guys can have the honour" he told them, and they looked up, ordering in unison, "TARDIS, finish the job". With a final cry of pain, House was destroyed, and the console room returned to it's natural warm hues. Idris' body disappeared...and then a holographic version appeared on the stairs.

"Doctor? Are you there? It's so very dark in here" asked the TARDIS lady, as the Doctor turned from the console. "I'm here" he said softly, smiling at her. "I've been looking for a word. A big, complicated word, but so sad. I've found it now" she murmured. "What word?" the Doctor asked quietly. "Alive. I'm alive" the TARDIS lady smiled. The Doctor shook his head slightly. "Alive isn't sad" he protested gently.

The others watched the exchange silently, Rory holding Amy close. "It's sad when it's over. I'll always be here. But this is when we talked and now even that has come to an end. There's something I didn't get to say to you". The Doctor hung his head. "Goodbye" he whispered sadly.

"No. I just wanted to say, hello. Hello Doctor" the woman smiled, tears in her eyes, "it's so very, very nice to meet you". Tears sprang to the Doctor's own eyes. "Please...I don't want you to, please" he begged. The projection faded away, with a final whispered "_I love you_". The Doctor sniffled...then he felt Romana's mind touch his comfortingly, and smiled.

Rory stepped forward. "Doctor? Do you want me to show them to the med-bay? They look like they need it" he pointed out, gesturing at the Time Lords. Romana shook her head. "We're not hurt...we really just want to have baths" she sighed. "All the same, I ought to check that arm of yours" Rory said to the Corsair, "it's okay, I'm a nurse".

He beckoned them away, the Doctor waving them off as well. Amy lingered behind. "Are you okay, Raggedy Man?" she asked. The Doctor nodded. "You're still crying" she noticed. The Doctor turned and smiled at her, before kissing her forehead. "Run along, Pond".

/

After Rory had made certain they were all relatively unharmed, his wife Amy had shown them all to three sumptuous bathrooms. They showered and scrubbed and sprayed, eradicating the smell of House from their clothes and bodies. Then they burnt the clothes.

They had no idea where the wardrobe was, but the TARDIS had given them outfits anyway. For the Corsair it was a plain white, one sleeved shirt and black trousers, boots, a gun holster and a brown overcoat cut to three quarters length. Romana's outfit was a reiteration of the one her second incarnation wore, with more muted colours, and Flavia's outfit was a regal crimson dress with a golden belt, and a white shawl.

They returned to the console room to find the Doctor sitting in some sort of makeshift harness beneath the console room floor. "How's it going under there?" asked Rory, he and Amy having come to see what their pilot was doing. "Yeah, just putting up a firewall around the matrix, almost done" the Doctor replied as he fiddled with the wires hanging everywhere.

"They're not supposed to be sparking like that" commented Romana as she walked down the steps to his level. The Doctor pushed his ridiculous looking goggles up and pointed at her, opening his mouth to make a witty retort; then he stopped and stared. "What is it?" asked Romana, getting uncomfortable. "Sorry, I just...I missed - that outfit" he explained.

It was clear that he really meant to say "I missed you". Whilst they were cleaning themselves up, the other three Time Lords had been able to sense the Doctor's churning emotions, barely hidden behind his mental walls; delight, disbelief, nervousness, guilt, anger, sadness...along with the fainter emotions of his companions, which mostly amounted to curiosity about them and concern for them and the Doctor, which was touching.

"Are you going to make her talk again?" asked Amy, presumably referring to the TARDIS. "We can't" the Corsair told her. "Why not?" asked Rory, coming down the steps, and Amy added, "It's spacey-wacey, isn't it?" Flavia and Romana exchanged a look. "Well actually, it's because the Time Lords discovered that if you take an eleventh-dimensional matrix and fold it into a mechanical shell"-

He was cut off by a loud spark and snapped, "Yes, it's spacey-wacey!" Rory looked sheepish and dropped the wires he'd touched together. "Sorry...Doctor, at the end, she said something to the Corsair and I. We don't know what it meant" he told the Doctor, who asked, "what did she say?", standing up to reach another wire.

"The only water in the forest is the river. She said we'd need to know that someday" replied the Corsair. "It doesn't make sense, does it?" asked Rory. "Not yet. You okay?" the Doctor inquired, and Rory sighed. "No. I watched her die. I shouldn't let it get to me, but it still does" he admitted. Amy sat down on the steps and leaned on the railing.

"Letting it get to you - you know what that's called? Being alive. Best thing there is. Being alive right now, that's all that counts" said the Doctor, sitting back in the harness and swinging a bit. "Nearly finished. Two more minutes, then we're off. The Eye of Orion's restful, if you like restful. I can never really get the hang of restful. What do you think, dear? Where shall we take the kids this time?" he asked the TARDIS.

Romana noticed Amy's expression turn to one of surprise and asked, "Is something wrong?" The Doctor looked round. "Nothing" Amy waved her off, "it's nothing".

"Pond, speak" the Doctor commanded. She gave a wry smile, and shrugged. "It's just...I didn't think we'd be staying. You've got them now" she explained, waving a hand at the Time Lords. "You don't need us little humans anymore". The Doctor stood up and walked over to the steps; Amy stood as well and went to meet him half-way.

"Oh, Amelia...of course I need you. And you are much more than just a little human" he told her. "Are you calling me fat?" she asked jokingly. "You know what I mean" said the Doctor, pulling her into a hug. She returned it, and when they'd pulled apart the Doctor said "House deleted all the bedrooms, I should make you two a new bedroom. You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

Rory whispered something to Amy, who said "Okay, Doctor, this time can we lose the bunk beds?" _What is a married couple doing sleeping in bunk beds?_ wondered Romana. "Nah, bunk beds are cool. A bed with a ladder! You can't beat that" said the Doctor. Amy and Rory just looked pointedly at him. "It's _your _room. Up those stairs, keep walking till you find it. Off you pop!"

The humans turned to leave, but then Rory paused on the steps and asked, "Doctor do you have a room?" Amy tugged him off, knowing that the Time Lords needed some space. The Doctor continued to fiddle about with the wiring, avoiding the other's gazes. They waited two, three minutes, before the Corsair stepped forward. "Doctor" he said simply.

The Doctor stopped his machinations and sighed heavily. He stood up and beckoned them to follow him to the main level, leaving his goggles on the harness. The Doctor leaned against the console and faced them, feeling like he was facing a firing squad. Flavia stood right in front of him, with Romana on her left and the Corsair on her right, cutting off all his escape routes.

With a deep breath to steel himself, the Doctor began to explain. "The Time Lords and the Daleks went to War, raging across time and space; time itself became so twisted that Gallifrey was Time Locked" he explained. His voice was emotionless, but his weak barriers betrayed him. The others supposed he hadn't had to shield his mind for centuries.

"Rassilon decided to end the War using the Final Sanction...using a signal outside of the Time Lock to escape it, and using the paradox that caused to rip apart the Time Vortex, destroy the universe. A select few Time Lords would ascend to become beings of mere consciousness in the Void. You remember the Master? The link was inside his head, ever since he was eight, sent back through the Untempered Schism. A drumbeat...he's dead now. He's gone" the Doctor explained.

"I had four choices. Let the Daleks destroy the universe, leave my people to suffer trapped in hell in a Time Lock, let Rassilon destroy the universe, or burn my people and the Daleks alike. And the Daleks", his fists clenched, "they keep _coming back. _They keep...it's been about 150 years for me since Gallifrey was destroyed. All I've had are my companions, my TARDIS...and now you three".

He sighed and rubbed a hand down his face. "I suppose, technically...you are the last surviving member of the High Council, Flavia. If anyone has the right to punish me for what I've done, it's you" the Doctor told Flavia, who was surprised he was even suggesting it. His whole demeanour screamed of someone who'd done so much and was just so tired. Flavia thought for a moment, and then schooled her face into an impassive mask.

"Very well, Doctor. I hereby sentence you to a maximum of 150 years with no contact from Time Lords" she stated. The Doctor hung his head. "Doctor?" said Romana. He looked up at her, eyes full of barely hidden pain. "You've had 150 years with no contact from Time Lords" she reminded him, and the Doctor's eyes widened as he caught on.

"You...you forgive me?" he whispered disbelievingly. "I didn't say that" Flavia corrected, and the Doctor wilted somewhat… "but you saved us from House, and the universe from Rassilon. I think, just this once, you've earned a pardon" she smiled. The Doctor beamed at her, and suddenly darted forward and pulled her into a hug. Flavia stiffened in surprise. "Thank you" the Doctor whispered in her ear, before pulling away from the slightly stunned Time Lady and over to the console.

He reached out for the dematerialisation lever, only for it to swing down on its own. The Doctor laughed in delight, cheered and began to fly the TARDIS in his own madcap way. "Have you still not figured out how to fly this thing?" asked Romana as the room shock, even worse than when she'd travelled with his fourth incarnation. "This is the fun way!" he shouted back.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

The TARDIS landed with a jolt, and the Doctor bounded over to the doors when Flavia called out "Well aren't you going to do an environment check?" The Doctor stopped and spun around. "Ah, yes, environment checks. Must follow protocol, mustn't we?" He then stuck his head out of the door. "Yep, it's nice out".

The Corsair sniggered. Flavia frowned at him and then at the Doctor. "That really is too irresponsible, Doctor. What if there was...I don't know, a disease out there, like Chen 7?" she asked the Doctor, who scoffed. "Oh, like the TARDIS would land us in a place like that" he retorted, giving the console a fond pat. Romana raised an eyebrow. "It never seemed to take us where we wanted to go, as far as I recall" she pointed out.

Now it was the Doctor's turn to frown. "She, you were just talking to her. And she said, on House, she takes me where I need to go. Weren't you listening?" he asked Romana, poking her in the chest. "No, we were not listening to you and your time machine bicker, we were trying to build a TARDIS console practically from scratch, like you were supposed to be doing" Romana replied curtly.

"No fair, she started that argument!" said the Doctor, pointing at the Time Rotor, before adding "and it wasn't an argument, it was a perfectly civil conversation!"

Romana rolled her eyes. "Doctor, it was quite obviously an argument" she insisted, to which the Doctor retorted, "is not!" Again, eye rolling. "Very mature, Doctor" Romana said drily. The Doctor beamed at her, suddenly pleased for some reason. Flavia was right, this incarnation of the Doctor was extremely strange. "Oh I missed this! The outfit, the bickering, you! I missed all of you" he rambled, before hugging her tightly, unable to keep the grin off his face.

Crushed in his hold, Romana sighed and embraced her old friend in return. "We know you missed us" the Corsair informed him, "you've been broadcasting". In a flash the Doctor was standing away from her, his mental shields falling into place like a snap trap. It seemed he hadn't gotten too out of practice then. The Doctor ran a hand through his hair, clearly embarrassed. Part of Romana wanted to scold the Corsair for interrupting the hug she'd been having with the Doctor, it had been...nice.

The Doctor cleared his throat, and asked "So um, which incarnations are you all on?", just to change the subject. "I'm on my ninth" replied the Corsair. "Eighth" revealed Flavia. "Tenth" answered Romana. They were just about to ask the Doctor which regeneration he was on when the Ponds returned. "About time. Where have you been?" he asked them.

Amy smirked mischievously. "Breaking the new bed in" she replied, and the Doctor blushed at the implication. "Break- you - Amy!" the Doctor spluttered, "You can't say _that_ in front of _them_, it's embarrassing!" Rory cut in before the pair could get into a bickering match. "We're here then, yeah?" he asked.

The Doctor nodded proudly. "Outside those doors is the Eye of Orion, the most tranquil spot in this galaxy. Come along, Ponds" he said happily, practically skipping to the doors. Amy grinned and followed him, dragging Rory by the hand. Then Romana stepped out of the box, followed by the Corsair and then Flavia.

It was indeed the Eye of Orion, which was something considering the Doctor's poor piloting skills. "It's beautiful...and peaceful, I actually feel like we might not get chased by a monster here" Amy commented gaily, one of her arms around Rory's shoulders. "There are no monsters on the Eye of Orion, Amelia. The indigenous species died out, nothing big, they just sort of faded away. It happens. As for being peaceful, that's because of the high bombardment of positive ions.

"Nope, nothing bad has ever happened on the Eye. Well, not to me at least" he finished with a stretch. Romana frowned slightly. "Wasn't your fifth incarnation visiting the Eye when his past selves began to get pulled out of his time stream?" she asked, and the Doctor winced. "Okay, I tell a lie. One bad thing has happened...maybe two...but definitely no more than five" he amended somewhat.

They gradually drifted apart to explore, either alone or in pairs; except for Flavia, who said she wasn't the sort to go exploring and that she'd wait by the TARDIS. The Doctor wandered aimlessly for a while until he came to a small lake. He set about digging in the grass for a few flattish pebbles to skim. A smile broke out on his face when he sensed Romana approaching him. It felt so good to have Time Lord minds in his again, filling that aching emptiness.

She came and sat beside him at the side of the lake, as he gave up finding any pebbles. For a few minutes neither of them spoke, then Romana said, "I just thought I should tell you, I know how you feel". The Doctor shook his head, not meeting her gaze. "You couldn't possibly know. You didn't burn your own species" he replied, in a voice bitter with self-hatred.

"No, but I did kill a species" she said quietly, and this time he did look at her in alarm. "What?"

Romana sighed and explained, "We were in the middle of the Time War, not that time really mattered then. Rather ironic, really… the Caraskans had time lock technology, and my squad was ordered to neutralise the risk of the Daleks getting their suckers on it. At first we were just going to seize the technology, but then Rassilon ordered us to eradicate the Caraskans so that they'd never be able to rebuild it. We engineered a virus that wiped them all out in just under a week. And I...I was the one who pressed the button that released it".

She took a breath and went on, "After that I decided I had to get out, I had to try and escape. I tried to persuade the others to come with me, but Andred didn't want to leave Leela behind and Rodin had already been killed in action…Flavia and I took her TARDIS, under the pretence of searching for more possible risk planets, and...went looking for you. Then we were sucked through the Rift, and ended up on...that asteroid".

The Doctor patted her shoulder hesitantly. "I'm sorry" he offered. Romana shook her head. "I'm not" she replied. At the Doctor's confused expression, she elaborated, "If I hadn't done what I did, I wouldn't have left Gallifrey. If I hadn't left Gallifrey, I wouldn't have become trapped in a bubble universe. If I hadn't become trapped, I would have died along with the rest of our people. Doctor, Flavia might not have forgiven you entirely, but I have" Romana told the Doctor, who's eyes widened.

"You...you do?" he asked, hardly daring to believe it. "What are friends for?" Romana asked, as if that settled everything. The Doctor chuckled and put his arm around her. "Thanks... Fred".

They sat like that for a while until the Doctor mentioned, "is it just me or are you sensing a lot of frustration from the Corsair?" Romana nodded, and they went to go and investigate. They found the Corsair standing before a copse of trees, shooting at them with his pistol. "Err, Corsair? What are you doing, exactly?" asked Romana.

"Practising" he replied shortly, before taking another shot. "Okay...you know there's a target room on the TARDIS, you can practise all you want in there. Between you and me, though, your aim doesn't seem half bad" the Doctor commented, before noticing that Romana was eyeing him oddly. "What?"

"I thought you didn't like weapons" she said. "I don't - I just have a couple of trigger happy friends, and I never want them to meet each other, let alone meet the Corsair. You know how he flirts a lot? So do my friends, can you imagine three people, three trigger happy, flirty people in the same room together? I don't think the universe could take it" he shuddered.

The Corsair cleared his throat, reminding them he was still there. "What I mean is, I'm trying to get used to drawing and shooting with my left hand" he explained, and their eyes flickered over the stump of his arm. "You're right handed" the Doctor realised. The Corsair nodded. "They took my other gun when they captured me - their Ood knocked me out with his translator ball...I got woken up by the sound of a saw starting up" he told them, and Romana gasped. "You told us you were unconscious" she said with tears in her eyes.

"I'm sorry" said the Doctor, feeling inordinately guilty for not finding them sooner, saving them faster. "Don't be; it's not your fault. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, we all were" the Corsair shrugged. The Doctor blinked. "So...you forgive me for not saving you quicker?" he asked. "Of course, and since we're on the subject, I forgive you for the whole Time War thing. It's pretty obvious you've been bashing yourself up about it for ages, I don't feel any need to add to that...you're going to hug me, aren't you?"

The Doctor nodded. "Yes, I am" he smiled, only for the Corsair to grab him in a bear hug. "This version of you sure is a skinny one, Doctor" he said cheerfully. "Yeah...can't breathe" the Doctor gasped out. The Corsair let go of him; the Doctor rubbed his chest, straightened his bowtie, and suggested, "Perhaps we should go back to the others - I think there's a picnic basket somewhere in the TARDIS, we could have a nice picnic, how does that sound?"

The others agreed, and they began to walk back towards the TARDIS when Romana tugged the Doctor aside a little. "Doctor, listen...what I told you before...the others don't know. You won't tell them, will you?" she implored him. The Doctor shook his head and crossed his hearts. "Your secret is safe with me".

They hurried to catch up with the Corsair. "You know, I can take you to the Sisters of the Infinite Schism, the best hospital in the universe, they're bound to be able to give you a prosthetic arm" the Doctor told the Corsair, before turning to Romana. "You know what's great about the Sisters? They're not all cat nuns. Never trust a cat person, Romana - unless it's Valerie or Novice Hame, but they're exceptions" he warned a bemused Romana.

When they arrived back at the TARDIS, they found Flavia sitting primly on a checkered blanket, and the Ponds setting out a picnic. "Ooh, do you have any of those little finger sandwiches?" the Doctor asked eagerly, rummaging in the picnic basket. They all sat down and began to eat cheese sandwiches and crisps. "Hopefully this picnic will go better than our last one" commented Amy.

The Doctor gave her a puzzled look. "What went wrong at our last picnic? Come to think of it, when did we last have a picnic?" he asked. "You d-" Amy began, when Rory elbowed her in the ribs. "Dropped everything in a lake- I mean a pond. Big pond, small lake" he said hurriedly. The Doctor frowned. "I don't remember that".

"Well, you are over 900 years old" Rory pointed out, and the Doctor pouted at him. "Romana, he's making fun of my age!" he complained petulantly, pointing at Rory who was struggling not to snigger. The Corsair and Amy, on the other hand, were both heartless and snickering behind their hands. "Well, what do you want me to do about it?" asked Romana, half exasperated and half amused.

The Doctor shrugged. "I don't know, exile him. You used to be the Lady President!"

"You used to be Lord President!"

"Yeah...but you did for longer" the Doctor protested, and Amy stared at him in surprise. "No way did you use to be the president" she said disbelievingly. "I was! Oh, I bet you're thinking of the one in the White House. No, but I did fill in for old Georgie boy one time; but we're talking about the Gallifreyan Presidency" the Doctor explained in his usual rambling way.

"But that doesn't make any sense" Amy said with a shake of her head, "you can't be the President of a whole planet".

"You can if the planet is just one big country" replied the Doctor, "Gallifrey didn't have tectonic plates, not like Earth; we never had to worry about earthquakes or volcanoes or any of the other triggers for natural disasters that make your lives oh so exciting" he informed his companions, but this just raised more questions. "But Doctor, you described your planet to us once, and you said the capital was between two mountains. How can they have formed without tectonic plates?" asked Rory.

The Doctor blinked. "Ah...okay, so maybe we did have tectonic plates. Now that I think about it my geography tutor was a real bore, I think I just took naps in those lectures" he shrugged. "All of Gallifrey's mountain ranges and oceans formed long before the Time Lords began to evolve" Romana explained to Rory, who nodded at the simple and sensible explanation.

Amy, however, was more interested in the Doctor's supposed stint as President. "I can't picture you being President of anywhere, let alone a whole planet" she told the Doctor, who sighed at her incredulity. "I was, Amy. Twice! First my fourth incarnation was inaugurated-"

"As part of a scheme to defeat an invasion of Gallifrey by the Vardans which led to an invasion of Gallifrey by the Sontarons" Romana interrupted. "Oi! - and then, Flavia here made my fifth self President, didn't you Flavia?" the Doctor asked the quiet Time Lady with an exuberant smile. "Yes, I did" she agreed, "and then you foisted the responsibility onto me and left the planet, thus rendering your position void".

"Now that sounds more like you!" Amy cheered. She picked up a grape and tossed it at the Doctor, who caught it in his mouth. "Pft, you call that impressive? Throw two at me" the Corsair told Amy, who picked up two grapes and tossed them both towards the Corsair. He caught one between his teeth and the other on the tip of his nose. Amy and Rory applauded, impressed.

"Thank you, thank you!" the Corsair grinned at them once he'd swallowed the grapes. Amy decided she rather liked the Corsair; he seemed like a lot of fun to be around. Romana was okay, if a bit quiet, and Flavia was...well...the Time Lady hadn't exactly been cold to her and Rory, but Amy couldn't say she'd been warm either. She seemed a little aloof and prissy, really.

Then again, they had all been trapped on that awful rock for months and months, not even knowing if they'd be rescued. For all she knew, the Corsair was covering up his emotions with a smile the way the Doctor always seemed to, and the Time Ladies were just trying to deal with it all quietly the way Rory would. Yes, that was probably it. Amy glanced over at a boulder and gasped as she saw part of it slide back and the Eye Patch Lady appear.

The woman looked at her for a minute, smiled - smirked, really - and closed the hatch. "Amy?" said Rory, noticing that her attention had wandered. "Hmm? Sorry, I just...I was daydreaming. So um, Doctor, tell us about the species that used to live here" she suggested, wanting to get her mind off the stranger she kept seeing.

/

Back in the TARDIS, Amy and Rory went to read in the library - or rather, Amy went to read, Rory just went there to rub her feet. "We didn't get a chance to ask before, Doctor, but which incarnation are you?" inquired Romana. "Eleventh" he replied promptly, only for Romana to frown and say "You're lying".

The Doctor shook his head, eyes wide. "No, I'm not! Why would you think that?" he asked, squirming uncomfortably, making it pretty clear that he was lying. "In the War we were trained to recognise the signs of lying to spot Dalek controlled puppets" she replied, "you spoke too quickly and several key muscles in your face twitched in a sequence closely associated with lies or the omission of truth. So, which incarnation are you again?" she asked pointedly.

The Doctor sighed and answered, "This is my thirteenth body - but I really am the eleventh Doctor. The true ninth and eleventh versions of me aren't known as the Doctor". Seeing that this would require more explanation, he suggested that they reconvene somewhere a bit more hospitable than the console room. To this end he showed them to his study, a rather cluttered room with a constellation covered ceiling and four plush armchairs by a roaring fire.

"The ninth me...was the one in the Time War, but he didn't call himself the Doctor. He couldn't. After what he...after what_ I_ did, I lost the right to call myself that. So I pretend that incarnation never existed and in my true tenth body I called myself the ninth Doctor. Then the tenth Doctor, my eleventh body, went through a partial regeneration, ended up forming a Meta Crisis actually. Half human, half Time Lord. I sent him to live in a parallel world with another companion of mine, Rose Tyler" the Doctor explained.

"Why her?" asked the Corsair, and the Doctor sighed; today was just full of touchy subjects. "Rose was...the first companion I had after the Time War; she made me feel like I might not be a complete monster, and I got attached to her. When I regenerated into my last form, she was the first person I saw, just like Amy is the first person this face saw. Rose loved me, and I tried to tell her it would never work, but between the emotional attachment and the imprinting, the tenth Doctor convinced himself he loved her in return.

"In the end she became trapped in a parallel world, and then she came back; so when I got the opportunity to let her stay with her family and have the man of her dreams, I took it. Besides, the Meta Crisis was born out of battle, he was too dangerous to be left wandering the universe on his own. He probably goes by John Smith now, I should imagine, and they're probably married with lots of mini Johns and mini Roses running around" said the Doctor, "humans, they're like rabbits…"

Then he chuckled. "You know, this is the first time I've told anyone about this...well, anyone who's flesh and blood, at least" he amended with a glance at the ceiling. "You won't…" he trailed off, and Romana shook her head. "No, we won't tell your companions. And please, don't feel obliged to tell us anything you don't feel comfortable talking about" she insisted, and the Doctor smiled.

"Right then" he said decisively, standing up, "first things first, I'm taking you, Corsair, to get a new arm - and we can get you a new tattoo, if you like. Then I'll make you all official pilots, that's bound to come in handy later. We're equals, right?" the Doctor reasoned, to him they weren't mere companions, far from it. "Ooh, and then you can create bedrooms for yourselves - or I could create them for you" he offered, only to be met with a lot of shaking heads.

"Err, no, that's okay Doctor, I think we can manage" Romana said awkwardly. "Are you sure? I can give you bunk beds!" he said cheerfully. "Yes, very sure" the Corsair answered this time. Oblivious, the Doctor wandered out of the study, not even seeming to realise that they weren't following him. "I don't understand; if this is his final body, then why is he still running headfirst into danger?" Flavia asked rhetorically.

Romana provided an answer anyway. "Because he's the Doctor. Come on" she sighed, "let's not keep him waiting, goodness knows what he'll do if he gets bored…"


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

Just for clarity's sake, here are some descriptions of what the other three Time Lords/Ladies look like.

The Corsair: Taller than the Doctor, broad shouldered, short black hair, grey eyes, pale skinned. He wears a white shirt, black trousers and boots, a brown overcoat and a pistol in a holster.

Romana: Same height as the Doctor, slim, shoulder length feathered brown hair, light green eyes, pale skinned. She wears a cream coloured blouse, grey trousers, sandals, a light pink coat and a grey scarf.

Flavia: Slightly shorter than the Doctor, slim, black hair in a small bun, dark brown eyes, pale skinned. She wears a red dress/maroon trousers and red jumper with a golden belt and a white shawl.

/

The next morning, Amy and Rory came into the kitchen (one of them, anyway) to find the three new Time Lords sitting at the table. "Where's the Doctor?" asked Amy as she moved to get coffee. "The med-bay" replied Romana, and Amy looked at her sharply. "He's hurt?" she asked in alarm.

"No, he said he had to fetch something. We don't know what. He left two minutes before you arrived" Romana explained. Amy relaxed again and took a sip of coffee, before switching the oven on. She set the coffee mug down on the table and rummaged in the freezer, pulling out a plastic bag of what looked like… "Are those fish fingers?" asked Romana, mystified. "They're not for us" answered Amy, setting eight fish fingers on a tray and slotting it into the oven.

Then she microwaved some custard whilst her husband prepared two bowls of normal cornflakes. The mystery of just why she was cooking two such odd foodstuffs became apparent when the Doctor returned. He spotted the plate of fish fingers and bowl of custard on the table, beamed, picked up a fish finger and dipped it...in the custard. Then he ate it. _Well, that was gross _the Corsair thought bluntly.

"Mmm...did you make this?" the Doctor asked Amy. She smiled and answered, "Yeah, consider it a 'congratulations on not being the last of your kind anymore' breakfast". The Doctor tapped the end of her nose with a custard covered finger. "Can I try that?" the Corsair asked curiously, wondering if the Doctor's bizarre breakfast was as disgusting as it looked.

The Doctor nodded encouragingly, so the Corsair picked up a fish finger and dipped it in the custard. He bit into it cautiously and... was surprised. "Actually, that's not bad. You two have got to try this" the Corsair told Romana and Flavia, who declined as politely as they could.

"What did you go to get?" asked Amy, and the Doctor swallowed the last of his second fish finger to say "Oh! I nearly forgot - bang!" he cried, pointing some sort of gun at her. She rolled her eyes and pushed his arm away. "Isn't that the nano-recorder thing?" said Rory, eyeing the device. He and Amy looked alarmed for some reason. "Is it the Silence? Are they back?" asked Amy, checking her forearms.

"No, it's not the Silence" answered the Doctor. "What are the Silence?" asked Romana. Rory, sitting on her left, explained, "they're these aliens, they wipe themselves from your memory the second you look away, and they can tell you to do stuff with post-hypnotic suggestion, so you do it but you don't know _why _you're doing it. The only way to remind yourself if you've seen them is to leave yourself a message or put tally marks on your skin".

The Doctor held up the nano-gun. "It's not the Silence, and I've recalibrated this thing. It now contains nano-bio-dampeners. NBD's!" he turned to the Corsair and said, "Corsair, I assure you, this won't hurt a bit". Then he grabbed the man's flesh hand, the other hand being artificial, and shot his palm. "Ow!" the Corsair cried in pain.

"Yeah, I lied" the Doctor admitted, moving past him. "Why do we need bio-dampening?" asked Amy. "It's not for you, it's for these three" answered the Doctor as he shot Romana's hand. She winced but didn't cry out, having been expecting the pain. "They need to look human" the Doctor added.

"They already look human" Rory pointed out. "Not to a scanner, they don't - and I told you, _you _look Time Lord. We came first" the Doctor reminded Rory, who rolled his eyes. "I get it! It's like a high tech, teeny tiny perception filter, right?" Amy guessed. "Right! Sort of...see, humans, maybe not the brightest species but they figure it out eventually" he told other Time Lords as he finished with Flavia. "Ah!"

Amy glared at him. "_You're_ gonna get it in a minute. Just for that, you can pay for our spa trip" she told the Doctor, who stared at her like she'd grown an extra head. "What? Spa?" Amy rolled her eyes at him. "S-P-A, spa. Your friends were trapped on that freaky, filthy asteroid for God knows how long, they don't want a big crazy adventure, they want a relaxing trip to the spa" she said firmly.

"Actually, a spa does sound nice" agreed Romana. "But...spas are only fun for girls" the Doctor protested. "You lot can swim in the pool then, while _we _get pampered" replied Amy, gesturing to the Time Ladies. After breakfast, therefore, the humans went to get dressed ready for their nice, relaxing, no running allowed at all trip to the spa.

"Doctor, why have you bio-damped us?" asked Romana. The Doctor looked at them all with old eyes. "You might have noticed, I have a lot of enemies. And as far as my enemies know, I'm the last of my species. The longer I can keep it that way, the better, because then they'll target me and not you. I lost- I let you down once. Never again" he said firmly.

To say that the Corsair, Romana and Flavia were surprised and touched by his protectiveness would be somewhat of an understatement.

/

The four Time Lords took positions around the console whilst the humans clung on for dear life to the railing, only to realise… "It's not shaking that much" Rory said in surprise, letting go of the railing gingerly. "The TARDIS is designed for six pilots, Rory. The only reason it shakes around is because the old girl's getting on a bit - sorry dear - and I have to do everything myself" explained the Doctor.

"It's also because he never actually learnt to fly a TARDIS properly" Romana added. "Oi!"

Amy nodded. "It probably doesn't help that he threw the manual in a supernova and never uses the stabilisers" she commented, and Rory frowned. "What? The TARDIS has stabilisers, since when?" he asked incredulously. "They're not stabilisers, they're boring-ers - and I told you, I disagreed with the manual" the Doctor protested.

"Can we help?" asked Amy, "we'd make six" she pointed out, gesturing between herself and Rory. "No offence Amy, but the last time you wanted to help fly the TARDIS we ended up in a space time loop" the Doctor replied, and Amy huffed. "That had nothing to do with me and you know it" she retorted.

"It was your skirt".

"It was _your _glass floor!"

"Yeah, well it was _your_ husband!"

"And it was _your _thermo-couplings!"

The Doctor couldn't think of a good retort to this, so resorted to sticking out his tongue. Flavia stared at the bickering pair and turned to Rory. "Are they always like this?" she inquired, and Rory nodded. "Unfortunately".

At the spa, the three men and three women went their separate ways; the men to the private swimming pool and the women to get massages. "Fancy a bout of aqua-wrestling, Doctor?" asked the Corsair, and the Doctor grinned. "You're on! Rory here can referee" he decided, dragging the hapless human with him.

Amy looked at Romana inquisitively as they strolled through the spa to the masseuse room. "Aqua-wrestling?" she questioned. "It's a 'sport' that the Corsair invented. Wrestling underwater, and the last person to give in and go up for air wins" explained Romana with a roll of her eyes. Amy grimaced. "And I thought the Doctor was bad. Do you think he's always been this crazy?" she asked.

"I know he has. I used to travel with his fourth incarnation" replied Romana, and Amy's curiosity was piqued. "Oh? Do tell…"

/

Amy giggled as Romana finished telling her and Flavia of another of the Doctor's escapades. The three of them were lying on massage tables, Romana and Flavia facing Amy. Amy was thoroughly enjoying her massage, and the Time Ladies were thoroughly trying to. They'd actually only been trapped on House for a few months, but it was long enough for them to be slightly wary of strangers.

Of course logically they knew these humans meant them no harm, and they were both starting to rather enjoy Amy's company. "You know, you two aren't at all how I thought you'd be" the human commented. "No offence or anything, it's just that the Doctor told me once that his people were a bit...snooty, sometimes".

"Flavia here used to be" answered Romana, and the other Time Lady frowned at her, offended. "I was once a Chancellor on the High Council of the Time Lords" she informed Amy, "I had an image to maintain...Of course, with everything that has happened, even I realise that maintaining an image is not exactly the highest priority" she sighed.

Amy nodded in agreement. "I know what you mean; the Doctor has this way of making you feel like nothing matters except that one moment you're in" she said with a smile. That hadn't actually been what Flavia meant at all, but she decided not to comment. The melancholy atmosphere was disrupted by said renegade Time Lord rushing into the room; fortunately, the masseuses had left to fetch more oil ten minutes earlier.

"Pond, ladies, we have to go, right now!" the Doctor cried urgently. Amy groaned. "Doctor, I said _no running_!" she protested even as she got off her table. "I know, I'm sorry, but I got us in for free by pretending to own the place and then the real owner showed up and there was a spot of confusion and I _might _have insulted him a little - okay a lot - long story short he wants to arrest us all, again, sorry!" the Doctor rambled as they rushed through the spa.

They emerged into the lobby with the security guards hot on their tail. "Hey, stop!" ordered one guard; the Doctor grabbed Romana's hand and dragged her out of the spa and down the street. "Just like old times, eh?" he grinned at her as they ran. The Doctor, Romana, the Corsair, Rory, Amy and finally Flavia made it into the TARDIS. Flavia leaned against the door, panting; to her disbelief the others appeared to find it all dreadfully amusing, giggling like foolish children.

"What is the matter with you all?" she snapped, "we had no reason to run like common criminals, we could have calmly explained the misunderstanding! And what could you _possibly _have said to the owner of that establishment that would make him want to arrest _all_ of us?" she demanded of the Doctor, who winced. "To be fair, if we had gotten caught, we wouldn't have been trapped for long" he pointed out, holding up his sonic screwdriver.

Flavia glared at him. "Believe it or not, I actually thought your efforts to protect Romana, the Corsair and I were the result of you learning some responsibility after all this time. It appears I was mistaken" she told the Doctor, and with that, she left the console room. The Doctor turned back to the console, setting the TARDIS in flight, his face a mask.

Rory and Amy glanced at one another, and slipped out of the room as well, going the opposite way to Flavia. Romana approached the Doctor at the console. "Are you alright?" she asked him. The Doctor smiled softly. "I'm always alright, Romana" he replied, leaning back against the console. "I don't think Flavia is alright. Perhaps you should go and talk to her. That would be the _responsible_ thing to do" she pointed out.

The Doctor mock glowered at her, and then wandered off after Flavia. He wandered through the corridors for a while before he came across a door with Flavia's name engraved in Gallifreyan on the surface. The Doctor knocked three times on the door, but there was no answer. "Flavia?" he called. Still nothing.

"Listen, I know you're mad at me but please, just listen. You're right, I should have been more careful; I'm just so used to running from my problems, literally, and the people I travel with enjoying the running...I should have realised you wouldn't, that you're not used to this sort of life. I'm not responsible, not at all, I'm just a...a vain, old man who doesn't want to lose the few good things he has in his life...Flavia, it's just the four of us, in the entire universe. We need to stick together, please" he begged.

When there was still no response, the Doctor sighed and moved away from the door. He was almost at the end of the corridor when the door behind him opened and Flavia stepped out. She was wearing a red jumper and a pair of maroon trousers; they looked a bit stiff, but definitely better for running in than the dress was. "You are forgiven" she said simply, as if commenting on the weather. The Doctor smiled, able to tell what she was _really_ forgiving him for, and waited for her to catch up, offering her his arm like a gentleman.

They returned to the console room, where the Corsair and Romana were talking besides the console. "Is everything alright?" asked the Corsair. Flavia nodded, and the Doctor moved away from her to switch on the scanner. "There's something I want to show you" he said, beckoning them to gather around.

They watched as the full body scan of Amy Pond showed her as pregnant and not pregnant over and over again. "I don't understand" said Flavia. "Neither do I, but I have a hunch" replied the Doctor. When he failed to elaborate, Romana prompted "Which is?"

"Rory told you about the Silence. I think the Silence, or associates of theirs, have kidnapped Amy and replaced her with a clone, that's being controlled by her mind being transmitted with a signal straight to this Amy's body. The thing is, the moment I isolate and cut off the signal then they'll know that I know, and I need them to think that I don't know for as long as possible" the Doctor explained.

"What do they want with your companion?" asked Romana, and the Doctor shrugged. "It's more likely that they want Amy's baby, since her original appears to be pregnant; of course her clone isn't, hence the misreading on the scans. I don't know what they'd want with the baby, though….right then!" he clapped his hands together, "the Ponds are probably off doing humany-wumany stuff, eugh, so we've got a few hours to kill" he switched off the scanner and grinned at them.

Romana raised an eyebrow. "So first it was 'spacey-wacey', and now 'humany-wumany'...at what point did you stop speaking like an adult, exactly?" she asked the Doctor, who shrugged and tapped her on the nose. "I don't think I ever spoke like an adult. Come on, all of time and space, any star, any planet. Flavia, why don't you pick someplace? There must be somewhere you've always wanted to go".

Flavia scoffed. "I'm not like you or the Corsair, I've never had any interest in leaving Gallifrey…" she trailed off, looking thoughtful. The Doctor eyed her hopefully. "...That is...it's silly, really. When I was very little, I wanted to see the Great Caraskan Fire. The photos always looked so beautiful...that's just the old dream of a child, though" she said dismissively.

The Doctor smiled. "Oh Flavia" he sighed, gazing down at her with old, sparkling eyes, "childhood dreams are the most precious things in the universe. What do you think has kept me going this long?" he asked as he set the TARDIS in flight. The Great Caraskan Fire, a supernova that had been suspended in time by the now extinct Caraskans, was one of the most marvellous sights in the universe.

"Right! We'll land on the planet; I know this mountain where you get a great view of the Fire-" the Doctor rambled before Romana cried out "No!" He snapped his mouth shut and stared at her; Romana cleared her throat, embarrassed. "I mean...why go to the planet? We'd get a much better view from the TARDIS" she amended. Flavia frowned. "But it's safer to see the Fire from Caras-"

The Doctor shushed her, much to her indignation, and said slowly, "Yeah, of course we can see it from the TARDIS". He altered the co-ordinates a tad and they materialised, not on Caraska, but thirty thousand kilometres above it, as close to the Fire as one could safely get. Then he extended the air shell, walked over to the doors and threw them open. "Behold, the Great Caraskan Fire. Better than the photos, Chancellor?" he asked Flavia, who was gazing enraptured at the sight before her.

The Doctor smiled inwardly. It was one thing to show a human the wonders of the universe, and he loved seeing their wide eyed wonder, but it took a lot to impress a Time Lord, or Time Lady for that matter. He glanced over at the other Time Lady standing beside him, reaching out to hold her hand. He was surprised when Flavia reached across and took his hand, not even seeming to realise she was doing it. Romana took the Corsair's hand, and the four of them stood gazing out at the universe, united.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

A/N: Hello, everyone! Here's the deal, 'A Second Chance' is being put aside for a little while, if anyone is actually reading it, so to tide you all over, here is a double helping of 'The Doctor's Wife AU', and there might be more to come. Hope you enjoy, please follow, favourite and leave a review!

The Rebel Flesh - Part One

Whilst his companions played darts and listened to Muse's 'Supermassive Black Hole', the Doctor held a psychic discussion with the Time Lords he'd rescued a few weeks ago from a sentient, homicidal asteroid. Amy wasn't actually Amy...well, she was, but she was also a duplicate. Her original self was pregnant and would probably give birth any day now. The trouble was, the Doctor knew what cutting off a signal the wrong way could do to a clone and he didn't want any version of his best friend to suffer like that.

"Forty six. Rubbishy, rubbishy, rubbish" Amy mocked her husband as his dart hit the board. Rory frowned at her. "Hello? It's a double top" he pointed out, only for Amy to retort "Wrong side of the wire, mister".

"You're...red" Rory tried to put her off. Amy just laughed. "No, I'm not. Stop trying to put me off" she threw back, before getting ready to throw her dart. The Doctor switched off the music and asked "Who wants fish and chips?" Rory raised his hand. "We'll drop you both off. Take your time. Don't rush" the Doctor said as he set the co-ordinates. "Err, and you four?" asked Rory. Amy eyed them, suspicious, which wasn't helped when the Doctor vaguely replied, "We've got things to do. Things involving... other things".

"Well, we'll stay with you. We'll do the other things" Amy decided, folding her arms. She'd made it clear that she and Rory were to be involved, in anything the Time Lords did, unless it really was a Time Lord job only. "It's nothing interesting, Amy. You'd just be very bored" the Corsair tried to tell her, but the ginger wouldn't budge. "Whatever you're up to, I'd personally like to be a part of it. What?" she asked them, seeing their reluctant expressions.

Suddenly a klaxon blared, then everyone got thrown around as the TARDIS shook violently. "Solar tsunami. Came directly from your sun. A tidal wave of radiation. Big, big, big" the Doctor explained as the four pilots tried to get the wayward time machine under control. Rory clutched his stomach with a groan. "Oh Doctor, my tummy's going funny".

"Well, the gyrator disconnected. Target tracking is out" the Doctor replied unhelpfully. He could see on the scanner that the TARDIS was heading for Earth, the right century, he just had to hope they landed in the right place. "Assume the position!" he yelled suddenly; Amy screamed and ducked down, covering her head with her hands. Alarmed, the others followed suit, clinging on tight until the shaking died down.

"Textbook landing" the Doctor smiled as he stood up. Then he helped Flavia to her feet, who stared at him like he'd gone insane...which she did a lot, as a matter of fact. "Only you would think that was a good landing" she grumbled.

They stepped out of the TARDIS to find a monastery with a cockerel shaped weathervane swinging in the breeze on top. "Behold, a cockerel! Love a cockerel. And underneath, a monastery. Thirteenth century" the Doctor informed them. "Oh, we've gone all mediaeval" Amy commented, but the Corsair shook his head and replied, "No, we're not in the mediaeval era".

"He's right, this is so not mediaeval" Rory agreed. Amy raised an eyebrow at them. "Really? You two are mediaeval experts are you?" she asked sarcastically. "No, it's just that I can hear Dusty Springfield" explained Rory, and sure enough, they could dimly hear 'You Don't Have To Say You Love Me' playing in the distance. "He meant the building is from the thirteenth century" added the Corsair, gesturing to the Doctor, who was looking at a crack in the ground with piping visible through the soil.

"These fissures are new. Solar tsunami sent out a huge wave of gamma particles. This is caused by a magnetic quake that occurs just before the wave hits" he explained for the benefit of Amy and Rory. "Well, the monastery's standing" Amy pointed out. "The Doctor took a snow globe out of his pocket and shook it. "Yeah, for now" he replied.

"Doctor, look" said Rory, pointing at the pipe, on which was engraved the words 'Danger-Corrosive'. "Yeah, it's a supply pipe" said the Doctor, scanning the pipe with his sonic. "Ceramic inner lining. Something corrosive. They're pumping something nasty off this island to the mainland" he determined. Romana raised an eyebrow. "What told you that, your sonic or the words on the pipe?" she asked drily.

"My mum's a massive fan of Dusty Springfield" Rory said randomly, and the Doctor nodded. "Who isn't? Right, let's go. Satisfy our rabid curiosity" he stood up and walked towards the monastery. "Don't you mean _your_ rabid curiosity?" Romana called after him. The Doctor turned, walking backwards a few steps, and stuck his tongue out at her. She rolled her eyes; responsible, he might be getting there, but mature? Never.

They walked into the monastery courtyard and looked around. "So where are these Dusty Springfield loving monks, then?" Amy wondered. The Doctor turned to the others and said, "I think we're here. This is it". They'd found a place that used the same sort of duplicates that Amy was, but at an earlier stage in the technology's development. Of course they hadn't been planning on having the humans with them when they investigated.

"Doctor, what are you talking about? We've never been here before" said Rory, having overheard. "Hmm?" the Doctor said, distracted. "Ignore him, you know he says the most ridiculous nonsense sometimes" Flavia reminded Rory, ignoring the Doctor's indignant scowl. Rory touched a pipe and yanked his hand away with a cry of pain. "Ow!"

The Doctor scanned his injured digit with the sonic. "Acid. They're pumping acid off this island. That's old stuff. Fresh acid, you wouldn't have a finger" he told Rory, who didn't look too pleased with this notion, when a voice announced "Intruder alert. Intruder alert".

"There are people coming. Well, almost" the Doctor said, being vague once more. "Almost coming?" asked Amy, in confusion. The Doctor shook his head as he headed into the monastery. "Almost people" he replied over his shoulder. "I think we should really be going" said Rory, and they all followed the Doctor into the building. "Come on!" called Amy, seeing Flavia lag behind. "I'm telling you. When something runs towards you, it is _never_ for a nice reason" Rory urged her.

The six of them hurried into a room with harnesses around the sides, people lying in them apparently unconscious. "What are all these harnesses for?" asked Amy. "The almost people?" suggested Rory, not that it helped lessen Amy's confusion. "What are they, prisoners, or are they meditating, or what?" she asked, staring at the people in the alcoves.

"Right now it's 'or what', I'm afraid" replied Romana. The tannoy system called out once more, "Halt and remain calm". The Doctor looked over at his friends. "Well, we've halted. How are we all doing on the calm front?" he asked them. Before anyone could answer, three people wearing hazard suits of some sort entered the room. "Don't move!" one of them called.

"Stay back, Jen. We don't know who they are" the other man warned his co-worker, who rolled her eyes slightly and said "So let's ask them. Who the hell are you?" Amy looked from them to the people in the harnesses, realising that they were the same men, the exact same.

"Well, I'm the Doctor, and this my err...team, Avery, Romana, Flavia, Amy and Rory, and it's all very nice, isn't it?" the Doctor said politely. _Avery?_ The Corsair projected to him. _Name of a pirate I met, first thing that popped into my head_ he projected back. "Hold up. You're all...what are you all? Like identical twins?" asked Amy, trying to figure out how the men could be in two places at once. "Jennifer, everyone calls me Jen, and this is Jimmy and Buzzer" the woman introduced.

Two more people walked in wearing hazard suits of their own. The woman eyed the newcomers and said "This is an Alpha Grade industrial facility. Unless you work for the military or for Morpeth Jetson, you are in big trouble".

The Doctor stepped forwards. "Actually, you're in big trouble" he retorted, pulling out the psychic paper. The woman looked at it and then at the Doctor with a disbelieving look. "Meteorological Department? Since when?" she questioned. "Since you were hit by a solar wave" the Doctor replied.

"Which we survived" she said firmly. "Just, by the look of it. And there's a bigger one on the way" the Corsair warned her, but she didn't listen. "We'll also survive that. Dicken, scan for bugs" she ordered the man next to her. "Backs against the wall. Now" Buzzer ordered, making Flavia glare at him for his rudeness. "You're not a monastery, you're a factory. Twenty second century army-owned factory" the Doctor said, more to prove he was clever than anything else.

"You're army?" Amy said in surprise, they didn't look like they were in an army. The forewoman replied "No, love. We're contractors, and you're trespassers". Dicken finished scanning them all and nodded at her. "They're clear, Cleaves".

"All right, weatherman, your ID checks out. If there's another solar storm, what are you going to do about it? Hand out sunblock?" asked Cleaves. The Doctor gave a fake chuckle and said, "I need to see your critical systems".

"Which one?"

"You know which one".


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

The Rebel Flesh – Part Two

They were led into a room, in the middle of which sat a large round vat filled with a bubbling milky liquid. "And there you are" the Doctor muttered, gazing at it curiously. "Meet the government's worst kept secret" said Cleaves, gesturing to the tub, "The Flesh. It's fully programmable matter. In fact, it's even learning to replicate itself at the cellular level" she informed them.

"Right. Brilliant. Lost" Amy said bluntly, knowing that it was usually better to just admit you didn't know what someone was talking about than let them gob on...and on… "Okay. Once a reading's been taken, we can manipulate its molecular structure into anything. Replicate a living organism down to the hairs on its chinny chin chin. Even clothes. And everything's identical. Eyes, voice…" Cleaves explained.

"Mind, soul" the Doctor continued. Cleaves rolled her eyes. "Don't be fooled, Doctor. It acts like life but it still needs to be controlled by us, from those harnesses you saw". Rory's eyes widened as he finally put the pieces together. "Wait, whoa. Hold it. So, you're Flesh now?" he asked the factory workers.

"I'm lying in a harness back in that chamber. We all are, except Jennifer here. Don't be scared" replied Cleaves, "This thing? Just like operating a forklift truck" she said confidently. A bit _too_ confidently for the Time Lord's liking. "You told us it could replicate at the cellular level, which means it's starting to grow, like a living thing" Romana pointed out.

"Moss grows. It's no more than that" Ganger Cleaves said unconcernedly, before adding "This acid is so dangerous we were losing a worker every week. So now we mine the acid using these doppelgangers. Or 'Gangers'. If these bodies get burnt or fall in the acid"-

"Then who the hell cares, right, Jen?" Buzzer interrupted with a scoff. _I don't like him_ thought Flavia. "The nerve endings automatically cut off, like airbags being discharged. We wake up, and get a new Ganger" explained Jen. "It's weird, but you get used to it" Jimmy agreed.

Cleaves turned to Jen, and said "Jennifer, I want you in your Ganger. Get back to the harness". When Jen had left, the Doctor pulled out his sonic and began scanning the Flesh. "Hang on, what's he up to? What you up to, pal?" asked Buzzer, noticing the Doctor struggling to move his arm away from the Flesh. "Stop it" he grunted; the Corsair came over and helped him pull away. "Strange. It was like for a moment there it was scanning me".

"Doctor" Cleaves said warningly; naturally the Doctor ignored her, and reached out to touch the Flesh. His hand ended up stuck to the surface, and all four Time Lords winced. "Get back, Doctor. Leave it alone" Cleaves ordered impatiently. The Doctor finally yanked his hand back. _You felt it too?_ He asked the others, who nodded.

"I understand" he breathed. "Doctor? Are you all right?" Amy asked in concern. "Incredible. You have no idea. No idea. I mean, I felt it in my mind. I reached out to it, and it to me" he replied without really answering Amy. "Don't fiddle with the money, Doctor" warned Cleaves, getting tired of the charade. The feeling was mutual, since Flavia was getting rather tired of the factory workers.

She turned to Cleaves and demanded "Do you actually not realise what you've been doing? Every time you use this Flesh, every single time you create a new version of yourselves with it you leave an imprint, of your thoughts, memories, and personalities" she tried to explain. There was a loud bang and a flash of light from outside. "It's the solar storm. The first waves come in pairs. Pre-shock and fore-shock. It's close" the Doctor warned.

"Buzzer, we got anything from the mainland yet?" asked Cleaves. Buzzer shook his head. "No, the coms are still too jammed with radiation" he replied. "Okay. Then we'll keep pumping acid until the mainland says stop. Now why don't you stand back and let us impress you?" Cleaves said to the time travellers.

A smaller tank filled up with Flesh. Gradually a body appeared, with clothes, and then a face...finally, an exact replica of Jen sat up with a gasp. "Well, we can see why you keep it in a church" the Doctor commented as Buzzer and Jimmy helped the new Jen out of the tub. "The miracle of life".

Buzzer rolled his eyes. "No need to get poncey. It's just gunge" he said flippantly, even though he was literally made of said 'gunge'_. I _really_ don't like him_ Flavia thought again. "Guys, we need to get to work" Cleaves reminded them, and the workers went back to their jobs. "Okay, everybody, let's crack on" agreed Jimmy.

Did I mention the solar storm? You need to get out of here" the Doctor tried to warn them again. Jimmy gave him an odd look. "Where do you want us to go?" he asked, "We're on a tiny island".

"Well, I can get you all off it".

"Don't be ridiculous. We've got a job to do" Cleaves replied impatiently; who did this Doctor think he was, walking into _her_ factory and demanded she play by _his_ rules? The Doctor pulled a snow globe out of his pocket and shook it. "It's coming" he warned, just when an alarm started blaring. "That's the alarm" said Jen. No kidding everyone else thought simultaneously.

The Doctor turned back to Cleaves. "How do you get power?" he asked her, and she replied "We're solar. We use a solar router. The weathervane".

"That's a problem" the Corsair said gravely. Jimmy looked at him, and then at Cleaves. "Boss, maybe if the storm's back we should get underground" he suggested. "The factory's seen better days. The acid pipes might not withstand another hit". I don't mind him so much, he's much more reasonable Flavia thought to herself.

"We have two hundred tons of acid to pump out. We fall behind, we stay another rotation. Anyone want that?" asked Cleaves, but none of the workers answered. The Doctor took her arm, forcing her to look at him. "Please, you are making a massive mistake here. You're right at the crossroads of it. Don't turn the wrong way. If you don't... if you don't prepare for this storm, you are all in terrible danger. Understand?" he asked urgently.

Cleaves just glared at him before pulling her arm away. "_My_ factory, _my_ rules" she said, walking off. Frustrated, the Doctor rounded on Jen. "I need to check the progress of the storm. Monitoring station?" he asked her. When she hesitated he snapped, "Monitoring station!"

The poor girl jumped slightly and gave him directions. "Three lefts, a right and a left. Third door on your left". The Doctor nodded at her and said, "Thank you" before striding off, his 'team' following behind him. At the monitoring station, he turned to Amy and Rory, quickly explaining the situation.

"There are waves of solar energy disturbing the Earth's magnetic field. There is going to be the mother and father of all power surges. See this weathervane, the cock-a-doodle-do? It's a solar router feeding the whole factory with solar power. When that wave hits, ka-boom! I've to get to that cockerel before all hell breaks loose" he explained, before smiling. "I never thought I'd have to say that again. Amy, breathe" he advised the ginger before running off.

"Yeah! I mean, thanks. I'll try" Amy said bemusedly. Romana and the Corsair rushed off after the Doctor, but Flavia lingered behind. "Aren't you going with them?" asked Rory. The Time Lady gave him an unusually sheepish smile. "I'm afraid I'm rather scared of heights" she admitted. The ground began to shake violently in an earthquake.

Much to Flavia's alarm, Amy and Rory were thrown to the ground and knocked unconscious; she managed to grab onto the monitoring station and keep her balance, clinging on for dear life as the solar wave rattled the building around her. It was even worse than when they'd crashed here; it was a wonder the time machine had landed the right way up!

At long last, the world stopped quaking. Flavia got to her feet shakily and walked over to kneel beside Rory, checking his pulse. He was still alive, as was Amy, and neither of them had head wounds as far as she could see so that was good. _Doctor? Romana? Corsair?_ She called out. _I'm okay_, replied Romana, much to the other Time Lady's relief, only to add _but the Doctor and Corsair fell off the Tower, and now I can't wake them up._

Flavia went to the courtyard to find Romana standing over the Doctor and the Corsair, both of whom were sprawled on their backs, eyes closed. "They're not too badly injured; they are going to have awful headaches later. I told the Corsair not to follow him up but he 'didn't want the Doctor to have all the fun'" said Romana.

"What do we do now?" asked Flavia. "Well, this would be the time when the Doctor would wander off and get into a lot of trouble" smiled Romana, recalling the good old days as the Doctor liked to call them. "Of course, the sensible thing to do would be to wake them and the Doctor's companions up and explain the situation" Flavia pointed out.

Romana gave her a look that she'd seen on the Doctor far too many times, and Flavia sighed heavily. "You're not going to do the sensible thing, are you" she deadpanned. Romana shook her head. "He's been taking us to so many safe places, and to be honest I was getting a little bored. What can I say? I caught the interfering bug from him" she shrugged, before walking off. Flavia groaned and followed; this was _not_ going to turn out well.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

The Rebel Flesh – Part Three

The Doctor jerked awake, eyes flying open. Straight away he realised he'd been out cold for about an hour or so, and shook the Corsair next to him. "Oi! Wake up!" The other man opened his eyes blearily. "Were you about to give me mouth to mouth?" the Corsair smirked when he saw the Doctor leaning over him. "Shut up" the Doctor grumbled, getting to his feet and looking up at the weathervane…or rather, at the smoking stump that used to be the weathervane.

"Oh that's not good" said the Corsair as he looked up at the tower as well. _Romana? _He tried, smiling when he got a reply straightaway. _I'm okay, so is Flavia, but your companions are unconscious. Doctor, the Gangers are independent now, they're sort of keeping us hostage. _The Doctor went back to the monitoring station, only to find Amy and Rory unconscious, but otherwise unharmed.

"They'll probably wake up soon. Let's find Flavia and Romana" the Doctor decided, striding into the monastery. They walked into Cleaves, who looked shaken. "Cleaves, you're not in your harness" said the Doctor, subtly scanning her with the sonic from his sleeve. "I'm sorry, Doctor. You were right" she admitted, chagrined.

"You've lost all power to the factory, the router's busted" the Corsair told her. Cleaves waved him off, not concerned about that right now. "I abandoned my team" she said sadly.

"Then let's go get them. I need to round up my team, too"

They headed for the harness room; that's where the workers were most likely to be. The Doctor glanced at his sonic, eyes widening slightly at the results. This was turning out to be a right mess. _She's a Ganger _he told the Corsair. Then he turned to Ganger Cleaves and asked ""How long would you say we were unconscious for, Cleaves?"

"Not long. A minute, two minutes?" she guessed, distracted. "I think we've been out a teensy bit longer" the Corsair commented. An alarmed expression crossed Ganger Cleaves face. "Well, how long?" she asked.

"An hour" the Doctor told her. "I've seen whole worlds turned inside out in an hour. A lot can go wrong in an hour"

/

Rory and Amy groaned as they came to, lying on their backs. Rory was aching all over. "Oh. For want of a better word, ow!" he huffed, before pushing himself up and helping Amy to her feet. "Where's Flavia?" he wondered, realising the Time Lady was missing. "Dunno. Shouldn't we find the Doctor?" asked Amy. Rory nodded and they went into the courtyard, only to find it empty with none of the Time Lords in sight.

Amy groaned again, this time in frustration. "Why can't they ever stay still?" she asked, exasperated, before taking Rory's hand and heading to the harness room with him. They found Jimmy, Buzzer, Dicken and Jen there. Jen was trembling, eyes staring at nothing, whilst Buzzer was being helped down from his harness. "I feel like I been toasted" he winced.

"What the hell happened?" Jimmy wondered, spotting Amy and Rory enter the room. "The tsunami happened. You hurt?" asked Amy. Jimmy winced as well. "It feels like the National Grid's run through my bones but apart from that…" he shrugged. "I hope the meter's not bust. I still want to get paid" said Buzzer, making Amy roll her eyes. Rory went over to Jen, recognising the signs of shock from his medical training.

"Jennifer! Jennifer. Hey, all right?" he asked her gently. She looked at him with wide eyes, trembling. "It hurt so much" she whimpered. "Hey. Hey, it's okay. It's over" Rory said comfortingly. He gave her a hug; Amy pursed her lips at the sight. "I couldn't get out of my harness" Jen explained shakily.

" Shush"

"I thought I was going to die!" she sobbed. Rory pulled back, but kept his arm around her. "Welcome to my world" he said with a little wink. Just then, the Doctor, Corsair and Cleaves walked in; Ganger Cleaves actually, but no-one except the Time Lords knew that. "Doctor, these are all real people, so where are their Gangers?" asked Amy.

"Don't worry. When the link shuts down the Gangers return to pure Flesh" said Ganger Cleaves, making the Doctor realise she wasn't _aware _of her Flesh-state. That could be tricky later. "Now, the storm's left us with acid leaks all over, so we need to contact the mainland. They can have a rescue shuttle out here in no time" she explained. Just then, they heard the song by Dusty Springfield start playing. They all listened in confusion. "That's my record. Who's playing my record?" asked Jimmy.

"Your Gangers. They've gone walkabout" said the Doctor. Cleaves shook her head in disbelief. "No, it's impossible. They're not active. Cars don't fly themselves, cranes don't lift themselves and Gangers don't…" she trailed off, hesitating. "Where is the record player?" the Corsair asked Jimmy, who replied, "the dining hall". They all ran there, going in to find it ransacked, Romana and Flavia standing in the middle of the room. "It wasn't me" they said in unison.

The Doctor smiled. "Ah, Fred! Flav, and…should've given you an 'F' name. You're ruining the pattern" he muttered to the Corsair. _How come you get to use your title, and I don't? _asked the Corsair. _Because I want to be the only one with a cool title, that's why. _

_That's not an explanation – and don't call me 'Flav'. Ever! _Flavia snapped at him. "No way" said Buzzer, staring around at the room. _Oh great, look who's here _thought Flavia, before blinking. Since when did she think things like that? "I don't, I don't believe this" added Cleaves, as stubborn as ever. _Do the Gangers you met know they were Gangers? Because this Cleaves doesn't; and I thought you said they were holding you hostage? _asked the Doctor.

_They heard you lot coming and scarpered _replied Romana; just before, ironically enough, Jimmy pointed out "They could've escaped through the service door at the back".

"This is just like the Isle of Sheppey" said Buzzer, but everyone ignored him. "It would seem the storm has animated your Gangers" said the Doctor; he'd tried to warn Cleaves something would happen, why did no one ever listen to him? "They've ransacked everything" sighed Ganger Cleaves. "No, they've _searched_ everything" the Corsair corrected. "Through our stuff!" Ganger Cleaves snapped.

"Their stuff" the Doctor corrected. "Searching for what?" asked Jimmy. _At least one of them is being somewhat reasonable _thought Flavia. "Confirmation. They need to know their memories are real" replied the Doctor, but the workers didn't seem to accept this. "Oh, so they've got flaming memories now" Buzzer scoffed, making Flavia tense.

"They just want to know their lives are true" said Romana. "Their stolen lives" Ganger Cleaves said bitterly, making the Time Lords wonder how she could be oblivious to being a Ganger when the others appeared to have realised it straight away…either that or she was an even better liar than the Doctor. "No, _bequeathed_" the Doctor corrected, "It's like Flavia tried to tell you, you gave them this. You poured in your personalities, emotions, traits, memories, secrets, everything. You gave them your lives. Human lives are amazing. Are you surprised they walked off with them?"

"I'll say it again- Isle of Sheppey" Buzzer repeated. "Ganger got an electric shock, toddled off, killed his operator right there in his harness. I've seen the photos. This bloke's ear was all hanging"-

" Even if this has actually happened" interrupted Jimmy, seeing that Jen looked nauseous, "they can't remain stable without us plumbed in to them, can they, boss". He looked to Ganger Cleaves for confirmation, who replied, "Guess we'll find out".

"Are you okay?" Rory asked Jen, who was clutching her stomach. "Do you need some water?" Amy fought down a burst of jealousy; he was just being Rory, friendly Rory, there was nothing in it. "I feel funny. I need the washroom" said Jen.

"I'll come with you" offered Rory; then Flavia added, "Me too...I'm a bit sick as well". It wasn't really a lie; she _was _sick, sick of Buzzer. She and Rory followed Jen out of the room, and Dicken sneezed suddenly, making Amy jump. "Sorry" he apologised sheepishly. "Oh, okay" she nodded. The Doctor eyed a card tower on the table. "That's me" said Buzzer, gesturing to it. "It's good to have a hobby. So what, my Ganger did that all on its own?" he asked sarcastically.

"Who taught you to do this?" asked the Corsair. "My granddad" answered Buzzer.

"Well, your Ganger's granddad taught him to do it, too. You both have the same childhood memories, just as clear, just as real" the Doctor told him, but Buzzer shook his head and said, "No". Then he knocked the cards over and glowered at them. "The Gangers are scared, disorientated, struggling to come to terms with an entire life in their heads" said the Doctor.

/

Meanwhile, Rory and Flavia were waiting with their backs turned to Jen as she tried to not throw up. "The Doctor's always saying 'don't wander off'. First rule with him, actually. Don't wander off" Rory commented, and Flavia raised an eyebrow. "And you listen?" she asked. "Not really – well, Amy doesn't" he admitted. "I just need a minute" Jen said apologetically.

"Oh, yeah. Sure. Take all the time you need. We've got your back. You're fine" Rory reassured her. Neither he or Flavia saw her face flicker from human to Ganger in the mirror. Jen lurched forward and vomited a piece of Flesh into the sink. "Err, Jennifer? What's up, Jennifer?" asked Rory. Terrified, Jen ran into a cubicle and locked the door. "We err, we'd better get going" said Rory, spotting the Flesh. "Everything okay in there, Jen?" he asked nervously.

Suddenly, an elongated arm punched through the door and Rory's chin, knocking him back against the sinks. Flavia screamed in shock as Ganger Jen's head shot out on a stretched neck, screaming "Just let us live!" Rory grabbed Flavia's arm and pulled her from the room, hiding around the corner. He glanced back to see Jen emerge from the restroom, looking like her normal self. He pulled back as she looked down the corridor towards him; when he peeked again, she was gone.

"We must go back to the others, it's safer" Flavia insisted. Rory shook his head. "No, we can't" he said, stepping out from behind the corner. "Why not?"

"Flavia, the real Jennifer is out there somewhere. We have to help her" he insisted. Flavia hesitated. "Oh…oh for goodness sake, fine! Let's go" she sighed. They walked down the corridor together, eyes peeled. "So, I'm guessing you weren't really sick" Rory said after a while, glancing at Flavia from the corner of his eye. "Does being sick of a person count?" she asked, before huffing. "I try to maintain decorum, you know, but even _I _have my limits".

Rory nodded in agreement. "You mean Buzzer, right? Yeah, he's a jerk…with a stupid name" he said, making Flavia smile for a moment. They came to an intersection. "Which way?" wondered Rory. He pulled a coin out of his pocket. "Whaddya say, heads we go left, tails we go right?" he suggested, and Flavia nodded. Rory flipped the coin. "Heads" he said, so they went left. Flavia sent a message to the Doctor. _Doctor, the Jennifer that was with us is a Ganger. Rory and I are unharmed, by the way. _

/

_Good _replied the Doctor, before sticking a chilled meal in the microwave. "We need to protect ourselves" said Jimmy. The Corsair held up his pistol. "I have dibs on this" he warned, when Romana shoved his arm down. "Stop it, _Avery, _you're not helping" she glared at him, before turning to Jimmy. "You don't seem like a violent man" she commented.

"I'm not" he shook his head. "Then why would the other Jimmy be?" asked the Doctor, still waiting for the microwave. "Don't tell me you can eat at a time like this, Doctor" Ganger Cleaves said in disbelief. The Corsair put his gun away and said "It's like we said, Cleaves; you thought we'd been out cold for a few minutes, when it was really an hour".

Ganger Cleaves blinked. "Sorry, I just assumed…" she began, but the Doctor waved her away. "Well, it's not your fault. Like I said, they're disoriented. Amy, when you got to the alcoves, who was in harness?" he asked the ginger, who paused to remember. "Jimmy and Dicken were helping Buzzer out" she replied. "What about Jen?" asked the Corsair.

"She was standing on her own when we got to her" answered Amy. The Doctor took the food out of the microwave with a cloth and handed it to Ganger Cleaves, who took the heated plate in her bare hands. "It's hot" he said quietly. A moment later Cleaves dropped the plate, hissing as it burnt her fingers. "The trans-matter's still a little rubbery, the nerve endings aren't quite fused properly" Romana nodded. Ganger Cleaves stared at her. "What are you talking about?" she demanded.

"It's okay" the Doctor said gently, moving towards her. "Why didn't I feel that?" asked Ganger Cleaves.

"You will. You'll stabilise".

"No, stop it. You're playing stupid games. Stop it!" she cried, turning around away from them all. The Doctor stepped forward again, saying "You don't have to hide. Please, trust me. I'm the Doctor". Ganger Cleaves turned back, her face half formed. Straightaway, Buzzer grabbed a knife and made to attack the Ganger, but Jimmy held him back. "Where's the real Cleaves, you thing?" demanded Buzzer, "What have you done with her?"

The Time Lords ignored him. "That's it. Good, you remember. This is early Flesh. The early stages of the technology. So much to learn" the Doctor murmured, reaching up to touch Ganger Cleaves' face. She flinched. "What's happened to her?" asked Amy, eyeing the woman warily in case she was a danger. "She's not quite stabilised yet. She'll keep shifting between half-formed and full-formed for a while" explained the Corsair.

"We are living!" Cleaves snarled suddenly, before running out of the room, screaming. "Let her go" said the Doctor. Suddenly Amy realised - "Doctor, Rory".

"Rory?"

"Rory!"

"Oh Rory, Rory! Always with the Rory. He's fine Amelia, him and Flavia. I mean, they're out there in a crumbling acid filled monastery with scared and angry Gangers everywhere, but they are fine" the Doctor said confidently, when he realised that they were all staring at him. "What?"


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

The Rebel Flesh – Part Four

As Flavia and Rory searched the monastery for the real Jennifer, whilst trying to avoid the Gangers and acid leaks, the Doctor went to get the TARDIS. At last they came across one of the Jennifer's in the locker room, sitting at a small table.

Without looking around at them, she began to speak. "When I was a little girl, I got lost on the moors, wandered off from the picnic. I can still feel how sore my toes got inside my red welly boots. And I imagined another little girl, just like me, in red wellies, and she was Jennifer too. Except she was a strong Jennifer, a tough Jennifer. She'd lead me home" Jen turned around and stared at them, revealing herself as a Ganger. "My name is Jennifer Lucas. I am _not_ a factory part. I had toast for my breakfast. I wrote a letter to my mum. And then you arrived. I noticed your eyes right off" she smiled at Rory.

"Did you?" he asked, cautious now that he knew this was Ganger Jen. "Nice eyes, kind" she nodded. "Where is the real Jennifer?" asked Flavia, and Ganger Jen glared at her, offended. "I _am_ Jennifer Lucas" she insisted "I remember everything that happened in her entire life. Every birthday, every childhood illness. I feel everything she has ever felt and more. I'm not a monster! I am me. Me! Me! Me!"

She looked human now, and more importantly she looked upset. Flavia felt a sting of guilt for sounding so accusatory; they still had to find the real…the _original _Jen, of course, but still. "Why did they do this to us? Help me, please. Help me" Ganger Jen begged them. Rory shushed her, giving her a comforting hug. Ganger Jen smiled gratefully at him and began getting some things out of her counterparts locker. "She won't mind" she muttered, "it's my stuff too".

Flavia pulled Rory aside, away from Ganger Jen. "Rory, are you certain we can trust her?" she asked. After all, the Ganger _had _attacked them earlier, unprovoked. "I don't know" he admitted, "but I want to help her…I was plastic once, a lifetime ago…but I still remember. I remember how it felt to know I was real but not actually, you know, _be _real" he whispered, keeping his voice low so Ganger Jen wouldn't overhear and get upset. Flavia made a mental note to ask him later about his time being plastic, but for now she just said "Very well. I'll trust your judgement".

The threesome made their way through the monastery, trying to find the others. "Are you sure you're feeling better? No more super-elastic punches?" Rory asked Ganger Jen as she walked beside him. "I'm different now. Stronger" she answered, smiling. Flavia eyed her suspiciously; something about the way she said that made the Time Lady uneasy. Oblivious to Flavia's concern, Rory said "The Doctor won't hurt you. He wants to help, Jennifer, okay?"

Ganger Jen stopped and stared at Rory in delight. "You used my name. You used _my name_! Thank you" she beamed, kissing him on the cheek. "You're so lucky" she told Flavia; Rory balked. "Err, no, w-we're not…we're just…I'm with Amy" he got out. "Oh. Oops! Well, she's lucky to have you" Ganger Jen smiled awkwardly. Rory nodded. "Yeah, she is. Let's go".

They came across Amy and Romana standing outside a door, which Amy slammed closed. "Amy!" called Rory, running up and hugging his wife. "You're okay. What happened?" asked Amy. Rory stepped aside a little, and Ganger Jen peeked out from behind him. "She needs protecting" Rory told her, and Amy's eyes widened as she realised this Jennifer was the Ganger.

Buzzer and Dicken came up from behind Amy and Romana, much to Flavia's distaste. _Wonderful _she thought sarcastically. "Jen?" asked Buzzer, eyeing the woman hiding behind Rory. "No, it's a Ganger. Rory, listen"- Amy began, but Rory interrupted her. "Look, _you _listen" he said firmly, "Nobody touches her".

_Flavia, is she safe? _Asked Romana, whilst Rory and Buzzer argued over what to do with Ganger Jen whilst the Ganger herself cowered against the wall. _I don't know…Rory wants to give her the benefit of the doubt, but there's something…duplicitous about her...and not just because she's a duplicate _explained Flavia.

_Alright, we'll keep our guard up…did you just make a joke? _Wondered Romana, when Amy said "Okay look, let's just…let's just go back to the dining room and wait for the Doctor. He's the only one who can sort this out…err, no offence you two" she added to the Time Ladies. They weren't offended though; the Doctor _did _have a lot more experience in this sort of situation. Whether that was a good or a bad thing was a matter of one's own viewpoint, however.

/

"Where's Jen? What have you done with her?" demanded Buzzer, glaring at Ganger Jen. "I haven't seen her, I swear. But look, I'm her. I'm just like her. I'm real" she implored them, but they wouldn't budge. "You're a copy. You're just pretending to be like her" said Jimmy. Flavia frowned slightly; out of all the factory workers, Jimmy seemed like the most reasonable, and she wondered if he was just following Buzzer's lead and not saying what he really thought.

Amy and Rory were talking in hushed voices in the corner. "Rory, we don't really know anything about them yet" whispered Amy. "Well, I know that she's afraid and she needs our help" he muttered back. Ganger Jen tried once more to gain her former co-workers trust. "Jimmy, Buzzer. Come on, you guys. We've worked together for two years" she reminded them, but Buzzer merely said scornfully, "I worked with Jennifer Lucas, not you".

Flavia tensed. _Would you like me to shoot him? _Asked the Corsair, and she blushed slightly when she realised she'd been broadcasting. _My apologies…and I'll think about it_she replied. "Okay, let's not do anything at all" Amy began, "Until the Doctor gets here" she said along with the Doctor, as he walked into the room with the Gangers behind him. "Hello".

The Gangers looked fully human; if they hadn't been standing opposite one another, it would have been impossible to tell who was who. "This is…" Jimmy began. "You're telling me" finished his Ganger, nodding in agreement. "All right, Doctor, you've brought us together. Now what?" asked Ganger Cleaves. The Doctor walked into the middle of the room and said "Before we do anything, I have one very important question. Has anybody got a pair of shoes I could borrow? Size ten. Although I should warn you, I have very wide feet".

They all looked down to find the Doctor wearing only his socks. "You stepped into an acid puddle, didn't you" said Romana, smirking in amusement. "Yes" he admitted sheepishly. Jimmy handed him a pair of brown boots.

/

Amy and the factory workers stood on one side of the room, Rory and the Gangers stood on the other, with the four Time Lords in the middle. "The Flesh was never merely moss. These are not copies. The storm has hardwired them. They are becoming people" the Doctor explained, but the humans were still sceptical. "With souls?" Jimmy scoffed. "Rubbish!" added Dicken, before sneezing again.

"Bless you. We were all jelly once. Little jelly eggs sitting in goop" said the Doctor, and Amy grimaced. "Yeah, thanks. Too much information" she complained, not needing _that_ mental image. The Doctor became serious once more. "We are not talking about an accident that needs to be mopped up. We are talking about sacred life. Do you understand?" he asked, and they all looked down, uncomfortable. "Good. Now, the TARDIS is trapped in an acid pool. Once I can reach her, I can get you all off this island, humans and Gangers, eh? How does that sound?"

Jimmy looked up. "Can I make it home for Adam's birthday?" he asked hopefully. Ganger Jimmy looked over and asked "What about me? He's my son too". Jimmy stared at his Ganger in disbelief. "You? You really think that?" he asked, and Ganger Jimmy nodded. "I feel it" he said firmly.

"Oh, so you were there when he was born, were you?" Jimmy scoffed disdainfully; Adam was _his _son, only his. He wasn't expecting his Ganger to say "Yeah. I drank about eight pints of tea, then they told me I had a wee boy and I just burst out laughing. No idea why. I miss home, as much as you" Ganger Jimmy revealed, much to the original Jimmy's shock. He _had _drank eight pints of tea…and laughed…and his Ganger remembered doing the _exact same thing_.

The Doctor was hopeful they could sort this out after all. "Look, I'm not going to lie to you. It's a right old mess, this. But as you might say up North, oh well, I'll just go to't foot of stairs. Eee by by gum"… he trailed off when he saw they were all staring at him…again. "Or not. Good. Right. First step is we get everyone together, then get everyone safe. Then, get everyone out of here".

"But we're still missing Jennifer and Cleaves" Amy reminded him. "I'll go and look for them" Jimmy volunteered; then his Ganger offered to go with him. "I'll give you a hand, if you like. Cover more ground" said Ganger Jimmy, to which his original nodded and smiled tentatively. "Yeah, okay. Thanks". They were just about to leave when Cleaves ran in, holding an electrified device at them. "This circus has gone on long enough" she spat, glaring at the Gangers.

Ganger Cleaves rolled her eyes, not surprised in the slightest. "Oh, great. You see, that is just so typically me" she said in a long-suffering voice. "Doctor, tell _it_ to shut up!" Cleaves snapped. The Corsair began to inch around behind Cleaves. "Cleaves, no. No, no" the Doctor warned her, trying to distract her from spotting the Corsair.

Cleaves just waved her weapon about. "Circuit probe. Fires about oooh, forty thousand volts? Would kill any one of us, so I guess she'll work on Gangers just the same" she shrugged. "It's interesting you refer to them as 'it', but you call a glorified cattle prod a 'she'" the Doctor commented, but Cleaves merely scoffed and rolled her eyes at him. "When the real people are safely off this island, then I'll happily talk philosophy over a pint with you, Doctor" she replied.

"What are you going to do to them?" asked Amy, not sure she really wanted to know the answer. "Sorry. They're monsters. Mistakes. They have to be destroyed" replied Cleaves. Romana frowned at her. "Monsters? They're not the one's pointing guns at people" she pointed out; Cleaves ignored her. " Give me the probe, Cleaves" the Doctor said firmly, reaching out to take it from her.

He was hoping that Cleaves was hesitating because she couldn't really bring herself to kill someone, even someone she saw as a 'mistake'…then her Ganger said the worst thing possible. "We always have to take charge, don't we, Miranda. Even when we don't really know what the hell is going on".

Ganger Buzzer suddenly darted at Cleaves, trying to grab the probe off of her. She held it up and zapped him in the chest, sending him crumpling to the ground. The Doctor rushed over and felt for his pulse, but there was none. "Argh! He's dead!" he cried, horrified. "We call it 'decommissioned'" Cleaves smirked; and Flavia had had just about enough. "That is the most despicable, heartless thing I've ever heard anyone say – the people made of 'gunge'"- she shot a glare at Buzzer, "have more humanity in them than you!"

"Speaking of hearts, you stopped his. He had a heart. Aorta, valves, a real human heart. And you stopped it" the Doctor glared at Cleaves. Rory spotted Ganger Jen backing away from them, staring at Ganger Buzzer's body in fear. "Jen?" he asked. She looked at him, the same fear in her wide eyes. "What happened to Buzzer will happen to all of us if we trust you" she said, and the other Gangers looked like they agreed.

"Wait, wait, just wait" the Doctor pleaded with them, trying to keep the peace together. Cleaves tried to fire at Ganger Jen; Rory cried "No!" and the Corsair leapt forward, wresting the circuit probe away and disconnecting the power. The Gangers used this distraction to flee for their lives. "Wait!" the Doctor called after them, but to no avail. "Look at what you have done, Cleaves" he snapped at the woman, who glared at him.

"If it's war, then it's war. You don't get it, Doctor. How can you? It's us and them now. Us and them" she said arrogantly. "Us and them" agreed Dicken; Jimmy hesitated, and for a moment the Time Lords dared hope that _one _of the humans would see sense…but then Jimmy sighed and said, "Us and them".

A distressed Rory turned back from trying to follow Ganger Jen, and looked at Amy, who seemed none too pleased with him. "Look, I just wanted to help her" he insisted, trying to tell her there was nothing more in his interest in Jen. "Well, we all do, okay?" she replied, just a little bitterly. "Don't be like that. Listen, she's…" he tried to explain.

"I said I agree with you. Drop it" she snapped at him. The Doctor covered Ganger Buzzer's body and marched over to Cleaves. "The most fortified and defendable room in the monastery. Cleaves, the most fortified and defendable room in the monastery!" he demanded. "The chapel" she answered promptly, "Only one way in. Stone walls two feet thick".

"You've crossed one hell of a line, Cleaves" the Doctor warned her. "You've killed one of them. They're coming back, in a big way". He told her and the other humans to go to the chapel. "What about you?" asked Amy, and the Doctor grit his teeth in frustration. "Do as you're told, Amelia" he said warningly; she huffed and followed Rory. Romana came up beside the Doctor and gave his shoulder a squeeze; he smiled gratefully at her.

"Flavia, listen to me" said the Doctor, putting his hands on the Time Lady's shoulders. "I just…I don't want you to think they're all like this, humans I mean. They can be so much better than this, believe me, I"- she cut him off, saying "I know. Really Doctor, what do you take me for? I'm not going to misjudge an entire species based on a few foolish narrow minded individuals" Flavia replied. The Doctor blinked. "Oh. Right"

Flavia pushed his hands off of her shoulders and moved past him. "After all, imagine if someone misjudged the Time Lords because they thought we were all like _you?_" she asked rhetorically; the Doctor spluttered. "What?"

/

The Time Lords caught up to the humans outside the chapel room, which also happened to contain the Flesh vat. "What about the flares?" asked Jimmy, as the Doctor sonic-ed the door open. "We'll worry about the flares when we're locked inside. Rory, Pond" he called to his companions, when a scream echoed through the monastery. "Rory, come on" urged Amy, seeing him hesitate. "Jen's out there. She's out there and she's on her own" he protested.

"Well, if she's got any sense, then she's hiding. Rory!" the Doctor called again. "I can't leave her out there!" he insisted, beginning to move away from the others. "Rory" said the Doctor, but the other man just looked at him. "I know you understand that". The Doctor sighed, but didn't try to stop him. Amy, on the other hand, did. "Get in here. Get in here!" she demanded. The Gangers approached them; Rory ducked down a side corridor, hurrying to find Jen. "There they are" said Ganger Cleaves.

The Corsair and the Doctor pulled Amy into the chapel room; the door was slammed shut behind them. "Amy, they are not after him, they're after us" the Doctor told the agitated ginger; they heard a voice dimly whispering "Why? Why?" in the shadows. The Doctor called out warily. "Show yourself…Show yourself!" he said more firmly.

The Gangers began to thump on the door as the humans struggled to keep it closed. "Pass me the barrel" said Cleaves. "We need something heavy. Anything you can find" agreed Dicken, and they set about barricading the door shut. _Can't you lock it with your sonic? _Romana asked the Doctor. _It doesn't do wood _he replied, still eyeing the shadows. He knew who was back there; he was pretending not to, more for the sake of the scared humans than anything else.

"This is insane. We're fighting ourselves" commented Jimmy. "Yes. Yes, it's insane, and it's about to get even more insanerer. Is that a word? Show yourself, right now!" he called. Amy couldn't understand why he wasn't helping them fight off the Gangers. "Doctor, we are trapped in here and Rory's out there with them. Hello? We can't get to the TARDIS and we can't even leave the island" she reminded him.

To everyone's shock, the Doctor spoke but his lips didn't move. "Correct in every respect, Pond. It's frightening, unexpected, frankly a total, utter splattering mess on the carpet, but I am certain, one hundred percent certain, that we can work this out". They all watched in surprise and for some, fear as a Ganger Doctor stepped out from the shadows, face still half formed. "Trust me. I'm the Doctor".


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

A/N: I've decided that there will be four chapters per episode, and when an 'episode' is complete, I will write and post the next chapter of 'A Second Chance'.

The Almost People – Part One

Before anyone could get to grips with this new revelation, the Ganger Doctor doubled over in agony, jerking in spasms of pain. "Argh! What's happening? ... I wonder if we'll get back. Yes, one day… Argh! I've reversed the polarity of the neutron flow…" he babbled, saying things the Doctor remembered his first and third incarnation saying. "The Flesh is struggling to cope with our past regenerations" he realised, before urging his ganger, "Hold on!"

The Ganger Doctor lurched forward, holding his hand out. "Would you like a jelly baby?" he asked in the fourth Doctor's voice, and Romana felt a little nostalgic twinge in her hearts; and a twinge of pity as the Ganger Doctor pulled away again crying "Why? Why? Why?"

"Why what?" the Doctor asked in bewilderment. His ganger straightened up and smiled, saying "Hello, I'm the Doctor" in the tenth Doctor's voice, before yelling "No, let it go, we've moved on!" The Corsair moved closer to the Ganger Doctor, ready to grab him if he looked like he'd hurt himself. "Hold on, hold on, you can stabilise" the Doctor urged his ganger, and the other Doctor grabbed him. "I've reversed the jelly baby of the neutron flow. Would you like a Doctor, Doctor, I'm, I'm the- I can't!" he cried.

"No, listen, hold on. Hold on" the Doctor insisted. His ganger shoved him away, screaming "No! Argh…!" Then he suddenly dropped to his knees, clutching his head and gritting his teeth. "Careful, Romana" the Corsair warned her, but Romana ignored him and knelt down besides the Ganger Doctor, putting an arm around his shoulders. The original Doctor looked on with a strange feeling rising in his chest.

The other Gangers, who had been battering against the door, suddenly went quiet. "I think I liked it best when they were being noisy" said Buzzer, and Amy nodded in agreement. "Mm-hm. You guys, we need you. Get over here" she called to the Time Lords. The Ganger Doctor jumped to his feet, fully recovered, and gave Romana a friendly smile. "Hello" he said. She smiled back. "Hello, Doctor".

"Doctor!" Amy called impatiently. The Doctor ignored her and turned to his ganger. "Cybermats" he said bluntly. "Do we have time for this?" asked the Ganger Doctor, not having to ask what he meant; they were the same person after all. "We make time. I'd like more proof that you're me. Cybermats" the Doctor repeated. The Ganger Doctor rolled his eyes slightly and replied "Created by the Cybermen. They kill by feeding off brainwaves".

Meanwhile the humans were still listening at the door for the Gangers. "Are you sure there aren't any weapons we can get to, like big guns with bits on?" asked Amy. "Yeah, big guns would be good right now" agreed Buzzer, but Jimmy shook his head. "Why would we have guns? We're a factory. We mine…" he trailed off as the door started smoking. "Acid" finished Amy.

"Rory and Amy, they may not trust both of us" the Doctor pointed out to his ganger, who asked, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" The Doctor smirked. "Inevitably" he replied. The Ganger Doctor added, "I'm glad we're on the same"-

"-Wavelength. You see, great minds" finished the Doctor. His ganger nodded. "Exactly. So, what's the plan?"

"Save them all, humans and gangers – oh, and Time Lords" said the Doctor, winking at Romana. She gave him an odd look. "Tall order. Sounds wonderful" the Ganger Doctor grinned. "Is that what you were thinking? It's just so inspiring to hear me say it" the Doctor smirked, ignoring the other Time Lords rolling their eyes at him. "I know!" said his ganger.

"Doctor, one of you, come on" said Amy. _"_So, what now, Doctor?" asked the Ganger Doctor. "Well, time to get cracking, Doctor" replied the Doctor. _This is not going to help bring down his ego _thought Romana. _I really hope they know what they're doing _thought Flavia. _Why couldn't I have got a double? _The Corsair mentally complained.

The two Doctors walked over to the humans. "Hello. Sorry, but we had to establish a few ground rules" they said simultaneously. Amy glanced down at their feet; the Doctor was wearing brown boots but the Ganger Doctor was still wearing his black ones. "Formulate a protocol" the Doctor nodded.

"Protocol? Very posh"

"A protocol between us. Otherwise"-

"- It gets horribly embarrassing" –

"-And potentially confusing" he finished, speaking in tandem with his Ganger. "I'm glad you've solved the problem of confusing!" Amy huffed sarcastically. "That's sarcasm" said the Ganger Doctor to his original. "She's very good at sarcasm" the Doctor agreed, before they both stared at Amy and shouted "Breathe!"

Amy stared at them in bewilderment. "What?" she asked, but the Doctors carried on as if they hadn't just yelled in her face. "We have to get you off this island. And the gangers too" said the Doctor, and Cleaves looked at him in disbelief. "Sorry, would you like a memo from the last meeting? They are trying to kill us!"

"They're scared" he repeated. "And to be fair, you did kill one of them first" the Corsair pointed out. Cleaves glared at him. "Doctor, we're trapped in here" Amy reminded him; never mind the gangers, what about _them? _"Right, See, I don't think so. The Flesh Bowl is fed by cabling from above" said the Doctor. "But where are the earthing conduits?" asked his ganger.

"All this piping must go down into a tunnel or a shaft or something, yes? With us?" asked the Doctor, spotting a grating on the wall. "Yowza!" he cried triumphantly, "an escape route". Romana and Flavia exchanged glances; they were _really_ starting to worry for the Doctor's sanity. "Yowza?" asked Amy. Romana was rather impressed; for someone with no telepathy the redhead had quite a knack for saying what she was thinking.

Naturally the Doctor ignored her. "You know, I'm starting to get a sense of just how impressive it is to hang out with me" he grinned at his ganger. "Do we tend to say 'yowza'?" inquired the Ganger Doctor; the original went slightly red and brushed it aside hurriedly. "That's enough, let it go, okay? We're under stress". He crawled through the vent. "Well, go on then!" his Ganger prompted.

Once they were all out of the vent, the Doctor sonic-ed the grate on the other side back in place. Cleaves and her ganger, who had broken into the chapel, stared at one another on opposite sides of the mesh. "Come on Cleaves, we can't stay here" said the Doctor; well, one of them at least. Cleaves was starting to regret killing Buzzer's ganger; but why didn't the Doctor, either of him, understand? The Gangers might be frightened, but so were they.

"The army will send a recon team out" explained Buzzer as they hurried through the monastery. "We need to find a way to contact the mainland" added Cleaves.

"What about Rory and Jen? They are both out there" asked Amy. She hoped the real Jen was safe, with Rory preferably. Not that the idea of Rory being around another woman alone was very appealing, but it was a damn sight better than him being alone with a Ganger. "No, this place is a maze. Takes a long time to find someone in a maze. I bet you lot have got a computer map, haven't you?" the Doctor asked Cleaves, who nodded. "If we can get power running, we can scan for them. Be a lot quicker" she agreed.

They all started coughing and choking. "Doctor, you said earlier to breathe" gasped Amy. "Very important, Pond. Breathe" the Doctor agreed. _Are you alright? _he asked Romana, who nodded distractedly. "Yeah, well, I'm struggling to" added Amy. "You and me both Scottie" the Corsair coughed, and Amy glared at him indignantly. "Acid interacting with the stone" explained the Doctor. "Creating an asphyxiant miasma" finished his ganger.

"A what?" asked Cleaves. "Choking gas. Extra heavy. If we can get above it" said the Doctor; Cleaves replied, "The evac tower. It's this way".

/

When they made it to the tower, they were all breathless. "Oh" Amy groaned, "I think I coughed so hard, I pulled a muscle or something. It's okay, it's better. It's easing off" she sighed, rubbing her chest. Then she remembered something and rounded on the Corsair. "Scottie?" she demanded shrilly. The Corsair stared down at her and blinked. "You are Scottish, aren't you?" he asked.

Before she could reply, the church bell started ringing. "It's midnight. It's Adam's birthday. My son's five. Happy birthday, bud" Jimmy said to himself, smiling fondly. "Yeah, I'm Scottish, but"-

"Then what's the problem? I like to give my friends nicknames. You're Scottie, and your husband is Leo- get it, like lion? Rory? Roary?" he grinned. Amy rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I get it. Those are bad, really…is that the best you can come up with?" she asked, and the Corsair pouted. "I never said I was _good _at it" he mumbled, moving away to help fix the power. Amy immediately felt bad; but she couldn't help smile a little. It was nice to have a new friend.

_So what nicknames? _asked the Doctor, having eavesdropped on the Corsair's conversation with Amy. No, not eavesdropped; he hadn't dropped any eaves, he'd just happened to overhear, coincidentally. _You're Flop-Hair, Romana is Smarty-Pants and Flavia is…probably going to kill me if she finds out. _

…_Sorry I asked. _


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

A/N: I just want to say, thank you so much for all the follows and favourites, I really appreciate them…but please, please review! I really want to know what you think of everything – the Rory/Flavia and Amy/Corsair friendships forming, and what should the Corsair's nickname for Flavia be? (Admittedly I sort of blanked on that to be honest). Make suggestions and I'll do a poll or something. Okay, I've rambled enough. Without further ado:

The Almost People – Part Two

The Doctor and his ganger crouched behind the power console, fiddling with the wires to restart the monastery's power. Romana was working on getting the scanner running, whilst Flavia and the Corsair were standing by the wall; Flavia to stay away from Buzzer, and the Corsair because as clever as he was, his area of expertise was in reconnaissance, not in technology. He knew enough to get by, of course…still, it was really the best place for them to be, since they could easily glimpse the two Doctor's swapping shoes and places behind the console.

The Corsair felt a tap on his elbow and looked down at Amy. For a moment she looked slightly intimidated; then she schooled her features into a smile and said "Listen, I'm sorry, about what I said before. I didn't mean it…I like my nickname". The Corsair waved her off. "Don't mention it".

"Can you really get the power back?" Cleaves asked the Doctor. It was difficult to tell who was who when they stood behind the console; the only way to tell them apart was their shoes and they were hidden. "Oh, there's always some power floating around" said the Doctor on the left, which Cleaves thought might be the ganger. "Sticking to the wires, like bits of lint" added the real Doctor.

"Can you stop finishing each other's" – Amy began, only for the Doctor to say "Sentences? No probs"

"Yes" his ganger agreed. "No" added Romana, "that would mean having to stop showing off". She rolled her eyes in exasperation as the two Doctors simultaneously stuck their tongues out at her. "No, hang on. You said that the TARDISes was stuck in acid, so won't she be damaged?" asked Amy. "Nah, she's a tough old thing. Tough, old, sexy" the Doctor said confidently. "Tough, _dependable_, sexy" added his ganger.

Amy felt frustrated. "Come on" she scoffed, "Okay, how can how can you both be real?" The Doctor's stopped and looked at her, but without much surprise. They'd expected this; all the Time Lords had. "Well, because we are. I'm the Doctor" replied the Ganger Doctor. "Yeah and so am I. We both contain the knowledge of over nine hundred years of memory and experience". He could have sworn he'd explained all this to the humans before, why did they never listen? "We both wear the same bow tie, which is cool".

"Because bow ties are…"

"And always will be".

Amy was still confused. "But how did the Flesh read you? Because you weren't linked up to it" she inquired. It was actually a good question; and the factory workers worried slightly, if the Flesh had actually advanced enough to replicate someone without them being in a harness, what if their Gangers used it to create an army?

"Well, it must've been after I examined it. Thus, a new, genuine Doctor was created" explained the Doctor, gesturing to his ganger, who smirked, "Ta-da".

Amy shook her head, still sceptical. "No getting away from it. One of you was here first" she insisted. They couldn't be the same, not exactly the same, because one of them was the original. "Well, okay. After the Flesh scanned me, I had an accident with a puddle of acid. Now, new shoes. A situation which did not confront me learned self here" the Doctor pointed out.

"That satisfy you, Pond?" his ganger inquired, and Amy flinched slightly. "Don't call me Pond, please. What?" she asked, noticing his expression; intrigued and also slightly hurt. "Interesting. You definitely feel more affection for him than me" the Ganger Doctor commented, and Amy felt bad, just like with the Corsair. She quickly tried to backtrack. "No, no, I. Look, you're fine and everything, but he's the Doctor. No offence. Being almost the Doctor is pretty damn impressive".

This didn't seem to help much though. "Being almost the Doctor's like being no Doctor at all" the Ganger Doctor pouted. Amy rolled her eyes and said, "Don't overreact". She said she didn't mean any offence, she just didn't see him as the real Doctor, what was the big deal? "You might as well call me Smith" he went on, ignoring her. "Smith?" she asked incredulously.

"John Smith" he nodded. Before Amy could reply, the Doctor jumped to his feet with a cheer of triumph. "Yes! Communication a go-go" he cried. "And I've got the scanner working" called Romana; Amy ran over at once. "Find Rory!" she ordered urgently, "Show me the scanning tracking screen. Come on, Rory, let's be having you" she begged.

"There's no sign of him anywhere, or Jennifer" said Romana. "Come on. Come on, baby, show yourself" muttered Amy, eyes flicking over the screen. Meanwhile, Cleaves was working on contacting the mainland for a rescue helicopter. "Saint John's calling. Emergency Alpha" she spoke into the radio. There was only the harsh crackle of static in reply. "Saint John's calling the mainland. Are you receiving me, captain? Come in" Cleaves repeated. "We'll never get a signal through this storm" she told the others, before repeating, "Saint John's calling the mainland. Come in, this is urgent".

At last the captain's voice came over the comm. "We're just about reading you, Saint John's. How are you doing? We've had all kinds of trouble here" he asked. Cleaves got right to the point. "Request immediate evacuation. We're under attack. The storm's affected our Gangers. They're running amok"

"Your Gangers?" the captain repeated in confusion, and Cleaves replied, "Yes, our Gangers are attacking us. We need you to take us off the island immediately and wipe them out". She tried to ignore the frown she could see on Romana's face at those last three words.

"Copy that, Saint John's. Shuttle's despatched. Hang on" the captain told Cleaves, pulling back her attention. "You'll need to airlift us off the roof of the evac tower" she informed him, "And captain, any further transmission sent by me must come with the following codeword. I'm typing it, in case they're listening in". She quickly typed out the codeword, and moments later the captain replied. "Got it. We'll swing in, get you out and decommission the Flesh".

"We've got to get out of here. We are, we're going to get out" insisted Buzzer, seemingly more for his own benefit than the others. Amy glared at him. "We're not leaving without them" she insisted; she meant Rory and the real Jennifer, of course. "I want them found too, but it's about casualties, innit? Can't be helped" he shrugged. Flavia overheard and bit her tongue, wincing at the pain. _Just ignore him _she told herself, _he's not worth losing your temper over. _

Amy went over to sit beside the Doctor. "What are you doing?" she asked him. "Making a phone call" he answered absent-mindedly. "Who to?" Amy inquired curiously; to her confusion the Doctor replied, "No one yet. It's on delay".

"Right. Not getting it. Why exactly are you making a phone call?" Amy asked; didn't they have bigger things to worry about right now? "Because, Amy, I am and always will be the optimist. The hoper of far-flung hopes and the dreamer of improbable dreams" said the Doctor, spinning her chair around and making her laugh. "The wheels are in motion. Done" he said firmly.

Amy's smile faded as she looked over at the Ganger Doctor, leaning against the wall talking quietly to Romana. "You know really there can be only one" she said to the Doctor. "Hmm?" He was distracted. "Oh, nothing. Carry on. Be amazing" she smiled. He smiled back and nodded, glancing over at the other him talking to Romana, and tried to ignore the peculiar urge to go over and step in between them.

Meanwhile, Amy felt herself drawn over to the wall, feeling as if there was something behind it. She jumped as a hatch slid open and the eye patch woman stared at her again. "Amy? What happened?" the Doctor asked in concern. The Corsair looked over from where he was trying to find the ginger's husband, just as worried. He didn't know why but he felt an odd sort of protectiveness for the ginger, rather like an older brother. Perhaps it was because she was human, and more fragile.

"It's her again" she answered, backing away from the wall as if it were a snake. "It's who again?" asked the Doctor, helping Amy to sit back down on the chair. "There's a woman I keep seeing. A woman with an eyepatch, and she has this habit of sliding walls open and staring at me. Doctor?" she asked him to explain it; to her surprise, he shook his head. "It's nothing" he assured her, but Amy of course, wasn't convinced. "Doesn't seem like nothing" she retorted.

"It's a time memory. Like a mirage. It's nothing to worry about" the Doctor lied, not meeting Amy's eyes. Before she could push the matter further, the Ganger Doctor winced, a hand rubbing his head, and left the room. "Hey, hold on!" Jimmy called as he walked out. Cleaves looked over and said "Don't let him go". The last thing they needed would be another Ganger after them. "No, leave it to me" said Amy. There was something she needed to ask the Ganger Doctor.

Outside in the dark corridor, the Ganger Doctor stood with his back to her, wincing every now and then. "I'm sorry" she began, trying not to be nervous. "What I said, about you being almost the Doctor. It's just really hard, because I've been through so much with him. I've even seen…I've even seen the moment of his…" she swallowed and asked "Can you die? If you really are the same, then you can die. You can be killed, and I… might have seen that happen" she admitted.

He didn't turn around; he only asked, "Why?" Amy didn't know what he meant. "Why? Because you invited us to see it" she scoffed "Your death!" Suddenly, the Ganger Doctor pushed her against the wall, his eyes wide and mad. "Why?" he demanded. Scared, Amy struggled in his grasp. "You're hurting me" she protested, trying to get away from him. He wasn't the Doctor, definitely not…the Doctor would never hurt her on purpose.

"It's all the eyes say" the Ganger said urgently, "Why? I can feel them as they work each day, knowing the time was coming for them to be thrown away again. Not again, please. And then they are destroyed and they feel death, and all they can say is, _why_?" With that he stepped back, and Amy stumbled away from him, running back into the room.

Everyone looked up as she entered, followed by the Ganger Doctor. "Keep him away from me" said Amy, moving over to the Corsair, as far from the Ganger Doctor as possible. "Did you sense it?" he asked the original, who replied "Briefly. Not as strong as you". The other three Time Lords nodded, for what, nobody knew. "Amy, I'm sorry" said the Ganger Doctor; she stepped behind the Corsair slightly and glared at him. "No, you keep away. We can't trust you".

"Doctor, what's happening?" asked Romana, but it was his ganger who answered. "It would appear I can connect to the Flesh" he explained to her and Flavia. Amy scoffed, "you are Flesh". The Ganger Doctor ignored her though and carried on. "I'm beginning to understand what it's been through, what it needs" he said. "What you want. _You _are _it_" Amy insisted.

"What _does _it want?" asked the Corsair. "It's much more powerful than we thought" said the Ganger Doctor, before looking at Cleaves. "The Flesh can grow, correct?" he inquired. "Its cells can divide" she answered noncommittally. She didn't blame Amy for not trusting the Doctor's ganger; they were dangerous. She regretted killing Buzzer's ganger but the fact remained, their copies were mistakes.

"Well, now it wants to do that at will. It wants revenge. It's in pain, angry. It wants revenge" the Ganger Doctor said darkly. Amy glared at him. "I was right. You're not the Doctor. You can't ever be. You're just a copy" she said harshly; part of her felt guilty, but she ignored it. _This isn't the Doctor _she told herself firmly. "Doctor, it might be best if you stayed over there for now, hmm?" Cleaves said to the Ganger Doctor, nodding over at the wall near Buzzer and Jimmy.

The Doctor stood up from the control panel and shook his head. "Hold on a minute, hold your horses. I thought I'd explained this. I'm him, he's me" he repeated, pointing between himself and his ganger. "Doctor, we have no issue with you, but when it comes to your Ganger…" Cleaves left the threat hanging, but the Doctor scoffed. "Don't be so absurd" he told her.

Cleaves ignored him and turned to her workers. "Buzzer" she said; the man in question nodded with a "Sure, boss", and set a barrel down for the Ganger Doctor to sit on. "Take a seat, mate" he offered; or rather, ordered. Once the Ganger Doctor had sat down, he said "Nice barrel, very comfy. Why not? Is this really what you want?" he asked Cleaves. She ignored him.

Amy turned to the Time Ladies. "You both know that _he's _the real one, right?" she asked hopefully, pointing at the Doctor. Flavia and Romana glanced at one another. They couldn't say who they knew was the real one; because that was one being held hostage on a barrel, and Amy was pointing at his ganger. "Hey, Scottie – I don't blame you for being cautious, but you're asking the wrong people" the Corsair said behind her. Amy turned to look at him questioningly.

"His ganger is like another incarnation, just without the different face" he explained. "No, he hurt me. The Doctor would never hurt me and his _ganger_ did" Amy told him. The Corsair's eyes darkened briefly, but the flash of anger was gone in the next moment. Amy thought she might have imagined it. "Do you think I would never hurt you?" he asked. "Of course I- ow!" she cried as he squeezed hard on her upper arm. The Corsair relaxed his grip but kept his fingers clasped. "Don't assume someone will never hurt you, Amy- even someone you trust with your life".

/

A/N: Please review!


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who. I wouldn't know what to do with it anyway.

The Almost People – Part Three

Amy's eyes widened at the dark tone of the Corsair's voice; then the Time Lord let her go and she stepped away, rubbing her arm. _What was all that about_? She wondered. The voice of the shuttle pilot came over the comm. "This is the shuttle. We're right above you, but we can't get low enough. Gamma static could fry our nav-controls. Sit tight. We'll get to you. Just"- his voice cut off in a crackle of feedback. Behind her back, the Doctor surreptitiously scanned Cleaves with his sonic screwdriver. She'd kept rubbing her temple and he wanted to know what was wrong.

"Hello? Can you hear me?" Jimmy called into the comm., trying to regain contact with the shuttle. Amy's distress got the better of her; she headed for the door, saying "I can't find Rory. I'm going out there". The Corsair strode forward and grabbed her by the arm again. "Let go of me! Cor"- he cut her off, saying "There'll be acid leaks everywhere, and you've got no way of tracking him down".

"We could use the sonic to track him. Humans and Gangers give off slightly different signals. The sonic needs to tell the difference" the Doctor said helpfully; or not so helpfully, depending on one's opinion. Amy raised an eyebrow. "Oh, so the sonic knows Gangers are different. The other Doctor is different" she said firmly, pleased to have concrete proof at last.

The Doctor told her, "He is the Doctor", nodding at his Ganger, but Amy remained stubborn as ever. "Not to me. I can tell" she insisted. "Sure you're not prejudiced?" the Doctor asked lightly. Amy frowned at him. "Nice try, but I know, okay? We've been through too much. You're my Doctor. End of".

Over by the wall, the two Time Ladies talked in hushed voices. "What do you suppose the Corsair meant?" wondered Flavia. The burly Time Lord was leaning by the door, arms folded, as if he were guarding it. "I've no idea…perhaps it's something from the…from the War" answered Romana. "Are you alright?" she asked Flavia, who blinked and forced a smile. "As well as I can be" she replied.

Romana raised an eyebrow. "So, not really?" she asked sarcastically. Flavia eyed her, and Romana shrugged. "You're not the only one who's a bad liar" she admitted, nodding over to where the Doctor and Amy were arguing about the trustworthiness of his ganger. Flavia sighed, and admitted "Very well, I am…frustrated. And yourself?" she inquired. Romana didn't answer. "Romana?"

The other Time Lady blinked and started. "Huh? Oh, sorry. Did you say something?" she asked, blushing slightly. "I was asking if you were alright" repeated Flavia. "Oh, I'm fine...just got lost in thought for a bit there" she shrugged with a fake smile of her own. Flavia glanced from her to the Doctor, and wondered, _Yes, but lost in thought about what…or whom? _

She was brought out of her thoughts by the voice of someone she'd be happy to see the last of when they finally managed to leave. "Hey, there's a camera up" said Buzzer, "We've got a visual". Amy ran right over, spotting two people straight away. "That's Rory and Jennifer" she pointed, hoping that it was the real Jennifer with her husband and not her Ganger. Little did she know that Flavia was thinking the same thing.

"They're heading for the thermostatic room" said Cleaves. "Let's go get them" urged Amy; not even the Corsair would stop her getting Rory back, not when she'd lost him so many times. The Doctor pulled his sonic screwdriver from his pocket and tossed it over to his ganger. "Hang on" Amy said warily. Her unvoiced worries were spoken aloud by Cleaves. "We can't let him go, are you crazy?" she asked the Doctor.

"Am I crazy, Doctor?" he asked his ganger, who thought for a moment and replied "Well, you did want to plumb your brain into the core of an entire planet just to halt its orbit and win a bet". Romana just barely resisted the urge to face-palm at that. How had the Doctor even survived before he met her…or afterwards, for that matter?

Amy wasn't having any of it; if things hadn't been so dire the Time Lords would have rather admired her tenacity. "He can't go rescue them. I'm going" she asserted. The Doctor stared her down. "Do you know, I want him to go; and I'm rather adamant" he told Amy firmly, letting his voice just hang on the edge of being threatening.

"Well then, he'll need company, right boss?" asked Buzzer. "It's fine, I'll handle it" he added when Cleaves gave him a look. _Handle what? _Flavia wondered suspiciously. "Thank you, Buzzer" the Ganger Doctor said lightly, adding to Amy, "It'll be alright. I'll find him". She didn't respond; Buzzer and the Ganger Doctor left the tower, and the Doctor got Amy's attention again. "I can't explain it to you now, but I need you to trust him. Can you do that for me, Amy?" he asked her.

"And what if you're wrong?" she asked in turn. Rather than answer her, the Doctor posed another question. "Remember back when we first started travelling, and we ended up on the Byzantium with Weeping Angels. What did I tell you back then?" he inquired. Amy sighed and rolled her eyes. "You said if you always told me the truth, you wouldn't need me to trust you...look, I'm not saying I trust him. But if you say he's okay, I'll trust you" she relented. The Doctor smiled and kissed her forehead.

"Thank you, Pond. Oh, and don't forget what I said earlier, to"-

"Breathe, I know. Pretty sure I've got that covered, thanks".

"These temperature gauges are rising. Jennifer and Rory must have shut off the underground cooling vents" said Cleaves, much to everyone's alarm. "Why do that? They'll kill us" asked Dicken. "I think it's rather obvious" said Flavia, "Rory is with Jennifer's ganger, and she's tricked him into helping her. I wouldn't be surprised if she needed a human to work the controls" she explained. Jimmy nodded. "She's right, the uh, controls don't work for Gangers – not those ones anyway" he confirmed.

"There's a million gallons of boiling acid under our feet" Cleaves pointed out, and the Doctor just had to add, "And now it's heating up the whole island. How long till it blows?" As if in answer, an ominous rumble echoed through the room. "Gangers or no gangers, we need to get the hell out of here" Dicken insisted. Cleaves made contact with the shuttle again. "Shuttle, we need evac. Where are you? Can you hear me? Can you-aah!" she cried out in pain, clutching her head.

"Cleaves? Cleaves? Cleaves, sit down" the Doctor helped her into a chair. Cleaves waved him off. "I'm fine" she lied, wincing. "I'm waiting for results, so let it go" she said, trying to get him to drop the subject. "It's a very deep parietal clot" the Doctor told her, having gleaned that much from his scan. "How can you possibly…?" she began, but trailed off. It wasn't important. "Inoperable?"

"On Earth, yes" the Doctor answered. "Well, seeing as Earth's all that's on offer… Hmm. I'm no healthy spring chicken, and you're no weatherman, right?" Cleaves asked rhetorically. There was another, more violent rumble. "Something just cracked, I heard it" Amy said in alarm. "Doctor, we should go" said the Corsair. "He's right" Jimmy agreed, "let's shift".

Cleaves tried to contact the shuttle one more time. "Cleaves to shuttle, respond. We need to move, and we can't be collected from the Evac tower" she called into the comm. "Give us the code word" replied the pilot. "The code word is"- she began, when a third tremor and a bang set alarms off and disconnected the line. "Cleaves? Cleaves, it's dead. It's dead. We need to get out of here. We need to get back downstairs and get those vents back on. Come on" the Doctor urged her, pulling the woman away from the comm.

They hurried from the room and into a passageway, with the eyes of old Gangers staring at them from the walls. "Ah, the eyes have it" said the Doctor, pausing and staring back at them. "Why are they here?" asked Amy, eyeing the…well, eyes, nervously. "To accuse us" the Doctor replied. Cleaves strode past the eyes, not looking at them a moment longer. "Ignore them. It's not far".

They made it to the thermo-static room, and Cleaves and the Doctor fiddled with the controls, but it was too late. "It's a chemical chain reaction now. I can't stop it. This place is going to blow sky high" the Doctor said. When Cleaves asked how long they had to get out, he anxiously replied, "An hour? Five second? Err, something in between". A warning klaxon began to wail loudly. "Out!" the Doctor cried, ushering them back down the passageway.

They saw Rory coming the other way; he ran up to meet them. "Thank God. Alright?" he asked Amy as she hugged him tightly. "Oh, Rory, oh Rory" she gasped in relief, clinging to him. "There's a way out" Rory told them all. "Jennifer found it. A secret tunnel under the crypt".

"The crypt? It's not on the schematics" Cleaves said suspiciously, recalling what Flavia had said about the Jennifer with Rory being the Ganger. "It runs right out of the monastery. Maybe even under the TARDIS, Doctor. Follow me" Rory encouraged, leading them along.

/

When they reached the acid room, Jimmy paused as he remembered something, or rather someone. "We can't leave without Buzzer" he reminded Cleaves. Part of Flavia was tempted to suggest that perhaps they could. _Stop that, he might be an…well, an annoying twit, but we still can't let him die _she scolded herself. "I'll go back for him" said Cleaves.

"Err, Doctor, look. I'd better tell you. I haven't been quite straight with you" Rory began nervously, when Ganger Jennifer appeared, slamming the door shut and locking the others in. "Rory!" yelled the Doctor, banging on the door. Outside, they could hear him talking to Ganger Jennifer. "Hang on, Jen. We don't need to lock them up. We should just show them what we've found" he told her earnestly.

The Doctor tried to open the door again. "Rory Pond, Roranicus Pondicus!" he shouted in frustration. "Rory, what the hell are you playing at?" Amy demanded through the door. "They've been throwing away old Flesh and leaving it to rot. Alive. I think the world should see that" Rory told the Doctor and Amy through the door.

"Rory, there is no time, the factory's about to explode" the Doctor told him, and Rory turned to Ganger Jennifer. "Are you sure about this?" he asked her, "because I'm not. Let them out" he ordered, but Ganger Jennifer just smiled at him. "The little girl got strong" she said, much to his bewilderment. "What?"

"The little girl lost on the moors in her red wellies, looking for a way home? Well, she got strong, Rory. I told you, remember?" she reminded him. Rory blinked, confused. "But that wasn't… It was the other Jennifer that told me about being a little girl" he protested. Ganger Jennifer tilted her head to the side. "Oh? What other Jennifer?" she asked all too innocently.

Rory stammered, "Well, the, the err – wait, you tricked me?" he realised. Then he made to open the door, but she grabbed him and held him back, surprisingly strong. "Let me go. I'm opening the door, let me…I'm sorry!" he called out to the others as Ganger Jennifer dragged him away. "No!" cried Amy, desperately trying to shove open the door.

The Doctor pulled her away, and Cleaves looked out of the window in the door to see her Ganger staring at her. "We have to be free" her Ganger insisted. After everything that had happened, and her apparently imminent demise, Cleaves no longer wanted to destroy the Gangers, and odds were none of them would survive this. "I'm sorry too, Miranda" she told herself, "Of all the humans in the world, you had to pick the one with the clot. But hey, them's the breaks. Welcome to the human race".

Ganger Cleaves ignored this olive branch, instead walking away back to her team. _How is my Ganger more loyal than I am? _Cleaves wondered briefly, when her thoughts were interrupted by a peculiar humming noise. The Doctor was scanning the acid vat with his sonic screwdriver. "I thought you gave your sonic to your Ganger?" a puzzled Romana pointed out. "I've got a spare" he replied shortly, checking the results. "This is going to overheat and fill the room with acid, just as a point of interest".

"And we can't stop it?" asked Cleaves. The Doctor looked at her and replied, "Just as a point of interest? No".

Dicken strode up. "Doesn't mean we can't try" he said firmly, gesturing to Jimmy to help him close the lid down on the vat. "It'll never hold her" said Jimmy, even as he pressed the lid down as hard as he could. "If you have a better plan, I'm all ears. In fact, if you have a better plan, I'll take you to a planet where everyone is all ears" the Doctor said sarcastically. "I bet they're really good listeners" Romana commented lightly, making him smile.

Despite the attempts at jokes, nobody was really in the mood for humour. "I think I'll just stay in the TARDIS next time" Flavia muttered to no-one in particular, but the Corsair overheard her. "C'mon, Flavia, where's your sense of adventure?" he asked with a grin. Flavia scowled at him and snapped, "You're as bad as the Doctor, treating everything like its one big game".

The Corsair held his hands up in mock surrender. "Whoa, okay. Sorry…ah, wait. I know why you're in a bad mood. You're worried about Rory, aren't you?" he guessed with a confident smirk. "And myself" she answered curtly, "…but yes, I am concerned for Amy's husband. He's a good man" Flavia admitted. The Corsair was still smiling that infuriating smile, so in exasperation, Flavia said "Why don't you go comfort Amy herself? She looks like she needs it", gesturing over to where Amy was staring at the door as if willing it to open.

She jumped when the Corsair touched her shoulder, eyes wide in shock. "Hello, Scottie" he grinned down at her. Amy relaxed, and asked, "Do you have to call me that? I'm not a dog" she huffed. "You're cute as one" the Corsair smiled, making Amy roll her eyes at the cheesy comment. She couldn't help but blush a little though; it was nice to be complimented, sort of, albeit in a joking, teasing kind of way. "Okay, smartass, from now on I'll call _you _a dog name…like Corgi".

"No, you can't call me that. If you're gonna give me a nickname, then at least choose one that _suits_ me" the Corsair pretended to complain. He chose his nicknames very carefully; well, most of the time, he didn't really know this Doctor or Flavia all that well but 'Flop Hair' and 'Stiffy' seemed to fit them pretty well. Then there was Romana, back at the Academy he'd been friends with a friend of a cousin of a friend of hers and learned that she was apparently a bit of a teacher's pet; hence the moniker 'Smarty Pants'.

He came out of his musings when he realised Amy was talking to him. "…so, I'm sorry, about what I said earlier. I'm obviously no good at making up nicknames either, but…I'd still like to give you one, even if we are going to die. Um…how about…Cory?" she shrugged. The Corsair stroked his chin with aam exaggeratedly thoughtful expression, making her laugh in spite of everything. "Cory…it's better than the first one, I suppose" he sniffed. Amy swatted him on the arm; "Yeah, well get used to it!" she grinned.


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who. Never have, never will.

A/N: Apologies for the slow updates, I'm close to graduating university so my priorities have been essay and dissertation writing, and later, exam revision. Yippee.

The Almost People – Part Four

The words were hardly out of Amy's mouth when Cleaves spoke up. "The acid's eating through" she said fearfully, gesturing to the tank that they were all keeping their distance from. The acid inside was boiling from the heat that stuck their hair to their foreheads and made their hands damp and sticky. Everyone in the room winced as they heard some other part of the monastery collapse.

They were all scared, for different reasons and for different people; but the long and short of it was that tensions were running high, and they were beginning to get desperate. When the lid on the vat began to jerk under the pressure of the acid bubbling beneath, Jimmy rushed forward and tried to shove it back down. Before the others could pull him away, the lid sprang open and acid burst out all over the man's chest. "Argh!"

Just then the door opened and Ganger Jimmy rushed in. "Let me through" he said urgently, pushing between Amy and the Corsair to kneel besides his original. "There's nothing we can do. The acid's reached his heart" the Doctor said apologetically from Jimmy's other side. "Hang in there, mate" his ganger encouraged Jimmy, who weakly joked, "I'm quite handsome from this angle".

Ganger Jimmy hung his head. "I'm sorry. I'm the fake. Adam deserves his real dad". That was why he had come, the little boy wanted to talk to his dad and his dad…was dying. "Shut up" Jimmy groaned. "What do you want me to do? Anything, just say" Ganger Jimmy promised. With a great effort, Jimmy pulled his wedding ring on a piece of string out from under his shirt and off his neck. "The way things are, mate, it's up to you now. Be a dad. You remember how" he said, pressing the ring into his ganger's hand, just before his eyes closed for the last time.

The Doctor reached out and rested a hand on Ganger Jimmy's shoulder, as the other man slipped the ring onto his finger and swallowed. "Jimmy Wicks, you're a dad" he murmured. This snapped Jimmy out of his reverie; he jumped to his feet and ushered them all out of the room, along with the Doctor. The Corsair paused to cover Jimmy with his coat respectfully; then he hurried to catch up with the others.

/

Jimmy led them back to the dining room; through the open door, they could hear a young boy curiously asking for his father. As soon as he saw his wife, Rory pulled her into a crushing hug, which she eagerly reciprocated. Cleaves and her ganger stared at each other, but with more wariness than hatred in their gazes. "Daddy, it's me" the little boy said eagerly over the holo phone call. Jimmy beamed.

"Hey, sunshine, what are you up to?" he asked his son cheerfully. "Opening all my presents" Adam replied happily. _He looks adorable _thought Romana, watching the little boy in his pyjamas practically shaking in excitement at talking to his father. Jimmy laughed fondly. "Ha, ha, good lad. You have fun today. And remember, your dad, he loves you very, very much" he told his son earnestly.

"When are you coming home?" asked Adam. The Doctor stepped forward and said "Daddy's coming home today, Adam", much to the little boy's delight. "Yay!" he cried, jumping about. Jimmy gave his son one more wave before ending the holo-call. "Now we need to move" the Doctor said urgently.

They ran through the monastery, only to come across Ganger Jen transforming into a raging beast. "Run! Run! Run! Oooh, roof's going to give" the Doctor realised in dread, urging them all away from the insane deformed Ganger Jen and towards a door marked 'No Humans'. They squeezed inside, not daring to move further into the room for fear of the cracking ceiling collapsing on top of them. "We have to stop her, this door doesn't lock!" Ganger Dicken said desperately.

"No, but the far one does" said Dicken; he rushed back, and the Corsair followed. "Corsair, wait! Come back!" the Ganger Doctor yelled after him. The Corsair pulled out his handgun and fired a few shots at Ganger Jen; she flinched and howled in rage, the bullets ripping through the Flesh like a knife through butter. To his dismay, she was unfazed; so he quickly made to help Dicken shut the jammed door and lock it.

They turned and sprinted back to the others, just as the TARDIS crashed through the ceiling. "Oh! She does like to make an entrance!" the Doctor cheered. Romana leapt forward and yanked the door open. "Come on, get in!" she cried. Flavia wasted no time; neither did Rory or Ganger Dicken, and the Corsair pulled Cleaves on board when he and Dicken caught up.

Soon, only the two Doctor's, Amy and Ganger Cleaves had yet to enter the time machine. "Hey, hey, now's our chance" said Amy, as the Doctor leaned against the door, holding it shut. "I have to stay, hold this door closed. Give you time to dematerialise" he explained. Amy rolled her eyes; now, of all times, he wanted to play the martyr? "Oh, don't be crazy… Okay, what happens to you?" she asked as she realised he was serious about staying.

"Well, this place is just about to explode. But I can stop her" he replied, and Amy shook her head. "No, you can survive this, okay? There has to be a way" she insisted. _She _knew the Doctor didn't die here, she hated knowing it, but it was true. "Or perhaps you think I should stay instead?" the Ganger Doctor said behind her, "Mr Smith".

Amy turned to him. "No, of course not" she said honestly, "But look, this man, I've flown with him, you know? And you are amazing and yeah, I misjudged you, but you're not him. I'm sorry" she apologised; only for the Doctor at the door to say "Amy, we swapped shoes". She looked between them in bewilderment. "I'm the Doctor" said the man she'd thought was his Ganger; "And I'm the Flesh" said the man she'd thought was the Doctor.

She couldn't believe it. "You can't be. You're the real him" she told the Ganger Doctor, who, she now realised, was the one leaning back against the door, holding it closed with help from Ganger Cleaves. "No, I'm not, and I haven't been all along" he told her. "What?"

"I'm the original Doctor, Amy" said the man behind her. "We had to know if we were truly the same. It was important, vital we learn about The Flesh, and we could only do that through your eyes" he explained. Overwhelmed, Amy ran over and hugged the Ganger Doctor tightly. "I never thought it possible" she murmured. "What?" he asked quietly.

"You're twice the man I thought you were" she explained, and he smiled, before whispering something strange in her ear. Before she could ask him what he meant, Rory called to her. She ran inside the TARDIS. "Well, my death arrives, I suppose" the Ganger Doctor said flippantly to his original. "But this one, we're not invited to" the Doctor said quietly to himself.

"Pardon?"

"Nothing. Your molecular memory can survive this, you know. It may not be the end" he told his ganger, tossing him his spare sonic screwdriver. The Ganger Doctor caught it deftly and grinned. "Yeah, well, if I turn up to nick all your biscuits, then you'll know you were right, won't you" he joked. "Doctor, come on!" Romana called from inside the TARDIS.

The Doctor gave his Ganger a final nod farewell and dashed inside the blue box, but paused in the doorway. "You too, Cleaves. Off you pop" his ganger told Ganger Cleaves, who simply stood there. "I'm staying" she said firmly. "This is not the time for grand gestures" the Ganger Doctor protested. "Says the king of grand gestures! This is my factory, I'm not going anywhere".

The Ganger Doctor beamed at her. "Foreman Miranda Cleaves, marvellous! Beware of imitations" he half warned, half joked. Ganger Cleaves rolled her eyes and jerked her thumb at the Doctor. "Clear off out of here, the lot of you" she ordered; the Doctor gave her a mock salute and shut the door. The TARDIS began to dematerialise.

Side by side, the two gangers faced the door. "This will dissolve her" the Ganger Doctor confirmed, holding up the sonic screwdriver. "And us too" Ganger Cleaves reminded him.

"There may be a way back from this"

"From being vaporised? How?"

"Don't know. Let's find out, eh?" He flung the door open and fired the screwdriver at the monstrous Jennifer. "Geronimo"

/

The Time Lords gave Cleaves a cure for her blood clot, Ganger Jimmy (well, just Jimmy really), a lift home to his wife and son, and sent Cleaves and Dicken to spread the word and help stop the mistreatment of Gangers. Amy noticed the Doctor watching her with a sad, wistful look and asked "You okay?"

"I said breathe, Pond. Remember? Well, breathe" he reminded her. Amy gave him an odd look. "Why?" she asked. The Corsair spoke up. "Amy, you really ought to start breathing – slowly" he said, just before Amy doubled over as a sudden, stabbing pain ripped through her abdomen. "Oh!" she cried in shock. Rory was at her side immediately, trying to check her over. She screamed again. "What's wrong with her?" he asked worriedly.

The Corsair helped him get her into the TARDIS. "Doctor! What is happening to her?" Rory demanded. "Contractions" the Doctor replied shortly. "Contractions?" Rory repeated, dumbfounded. "As in labour, as in she's about to give birth" the Corsair explained helpfully. "Did you just…? No, no of course you didn't. Ah! I don't like this, Rory" she gasped.

"I needed to see the Flesh in its early days" said the Doctor, drawing the humans' attention. "That's why I scanned it. That's why we were there in the first place. I was going to drop you off for fish and chips first, but things happened and there was stuff and shenanigans. Beautiful word, shenanigans" He knew he was rambling but he couldn't help it; he always rambled when he got stressed. "It hurts" Amy whimpered.

"You'll be fine, Scottie. You're tough" the Corsair pointed out, and she smiled weakly in spite of the pain. "I needed enough information to block the signal to the Flesh" the Doctor explained. When Amy asked what he meant, she couldn't believe his answer. He couldn't mean... "Doctor, Doctor" she tried to protest, but she could barely speak.

The Doctor looked at the Corsair, who sighed and said "Rory, we need to step away". Rory glared at him and pulled Amy closer to him. "Why? No, and why?" he asked warily. "Please, Rory…this has to be done" Flavia told him. "She's right. Given what we've learned, I'll be as humane as I can, but I need to do this and you need to stand away!" the Doctor ordered firmly. Slowly, Rory and the Corsair stepped back.

Amy gripped the console for support. "No, no, Doctor, I am frightened. I'm properly, properly scared". The Doctor stroked her cheek. "Don't be. Hold on. We're coming for you. I swear it. Whatever happens, however hard, however far, we will find you" he promised her, much to her confusion. "I'm right here" she protested.

The Doctor sighed and stepped back. "No, you're not. You haven't been here for a long, long time" he told her, before aiming his sonic at her. Amy went pale with realisation. "Oh, no" she gasped; just before he flicked the switch, and she melted into a pile of Flesh. There was a terrible silent pause. "Now I've done it" the Doctor leapt into action, getting straight to work on pinpointing the source of the signal.

Whilst the Time Lord's worked, Rory stared at the pile of Flesh in shock, falling to his knees besides it. The light glinted on something in the gloop; he reached out and picked up Amy's wedding ring, wiping away the Flesh and gingerly stowing it in his pocket. Then he stood up. "How long have you known?" he asked, his voice breaking.

He didn't look up at the Doctor as the Time Lord paused and turned to face him. "Rory, I'm so"-

"Don't. Just don't" Rory snapped. "I don't care what your excuse is. Amy is my wife, and none of you high and mighty Time Lords thought it fit to mention to stupid, bumbling Rory what was going on". With that, he stormed out of the console room. The Doctor watched him go with heavy hearts, before turning reluctantly back to the console. "Doctor, we can keep working on this. You should talk to him" Romana said gently. He smiled at her in thanks, and followed Rory through the corridors.

He found the other man in the Pond's bedroom, his eyes fixated on the ring in the palm of his hand. Rory didn't respond when the Doctor walked in through the open door and sat down beside him. "I truly am sorry, Rory" he apologised. "I know. Saying sorry won't bring her back, though" Rory pointed out bitterly. "We _will _get her back, but we're going to need your help. Clever, determined Rory" the Doctor nudged him with an elbow.

Rory smiled in spite of himself. "You really think we can save her?" he asked, looking up at the Doctor for the first time. The Doctor clapped his hand on Rory's shoulder. "I know so – but if you're going to be the big damn hero, you might want to look the part. You still have that centurion costume, right?" he asked. "Uh, yes"

"Great, get dressed. We'll be in the console room when you're ready to go" said the Doctor, before walking out of the room and shutting the door beside him. Rory sat stunned for a moment or two, before pulling himself together and heading over to the walk in wardrobe. His armour was arranged on a manikin at the very end. "Time to be Roranicus again" he sighed.

Back in the console room, Romana was giving the Doctor an update. "We narrowed it down to a single sector of space, but they – whoever they are – deleted all trace of the signal before we could pinpoint it's exact origins" she explained. The Doctor looked at which sector it was and smiled. "It's alright. I have a plan, and I know exactly who can help us". He gave them the rundown on his plan and asked, "Any questions?"

"I have one. Why is Rory dressed as a Roman?" asked the Corsair. They all looked behind them to see Rory, decked out in full armour and sword, with a steely determined glint in his eyes. The Doctor grinned, clapped and spun back to the controls, whisking them away to their first destination.

It was time for the rescue mission of the century.


End file.
